Astros re-sign Ausmus Veteran catcher inks two-year deal HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros announced Wednesday that they have agreed to terms on a two-year deal with free-agent catcher Brad Ausmus. The announcement was made by general manager Gerry Hunsicker. A two-time Gold Glove award winner, Ausmus has played five seasons in Houston and is the only Gold Glove catcher in Astros franchise history. He finished second among Major League catchers in 2003 with a .997 fielding percentage. He threw out 37 of 105 base stealers (.352), and was charged with only three passed balls in 143 games, ranking first among big-league catchers (min. 700 innings). Ausmus batted .229 (103-for-450) last season with four home runs and 47 RBI. He has caught at least 100 games in each of his 10 full seasons in the Majors. Ausmus has spent the past three years in Houston, and has posted a career batting average of .256 (1107-for-4327) with 63 home runs and 430 RBI. He first joined the Astros for the 1997 season after being acquired from Detroit in a trade on Dec. 10, 1996. Following two seasons in Houston, he returned to the Tigers in another trade on Jan. 14, 1999. Ausmus came back to the Astros on Dec. 11, 2000, in a trade with Detroit along with Doug Brocail and Nelson Cruz in exchange for Roger Cedeno, Chris Holt and Mitch Meluskey. ------------------------------------------------------------ Bad move. Dude cant hit at all and his glove does not make up for it. He is an automatic our 80% of the time.
Uncle Drayton opens up his wallet!!! Astros re-sign Ausmus Veteran catcher inks two-year deal HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros announced Wednesday that they have agreed to terms on a two-year deal with free-agent catcher Brad Ausmus. The announcement was made by general manager Gerry Hunsicker. A two-time Gold Glove award winner, Ausmus has played five seasons in Houston and is the only Gold Glove catcher in Astros franchise history. He finished second among Major League catchers in 2003 with a .997 fielding percentage. He threw out 37 of 105 base stealers (.352), and was charged with only three passed balls in 143 games, ranking first among big-league catchers (min. 700 innings). Ausmus batted .229 (103-for-450) last season with four home runs and 47 RBI. He has caught at least 100 games in each of his 10 full seasons in the Majors. Ausmus has spent the past three years in Houston, and has posted a career batting average of .256 (1107-for-4327) with 63 home runs and 430 RBI. He first joined the Astros for the 1997 season after being acquired from Detroit in a trade on Dec. 10, 1996. Following two seasons in Houston, he returned to the Tigers in another trade on Jan. 14, 1999. Ausmus came back to the Astros on Dec. 11, 2000, in a trade with Detroit along with Doug Brocail and Nelson Cruz in exchange for Roger Cedeno, Chris Holt and Mitch Meluskey. http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASAp...tent_id=605747&vkey=pr_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
Considering they were bidding against themselves, how much is the deal worth? If not much, then good to have BA back!
Yeah, cause he kept his wallet closed for people like Wagner, Hidalgo, Berkman, Biggio, Kent and Bagwell. Glad he's finally opening it up.
Damn! I had a bad feeling this was going to happen...I can't stand "Bradley" and his no hitting a**! But I do know that he is Bagwells good friend. I'm just sick of all this crap they always say about him being good for the pitching staff. What the hell do we have a pitching coach for... Damn! Another couple of years of watching that no hitting punk! I'm just upset. Thanks for letting me vent a little.
He's a great catcher, but he just can't hit worth a sh*t... That would really balance him out if he could...I hope he didn't get as much as we paid him last year...
Last year he started out good, he had those 2 homeruns in St. Louis, I thought he was going to gives us bat we needed from catcher. But nooooo he still had a solid glove, and that was about it.
He was abyssmal pre-ASB, but hit .270 afterwards. John Buck needs more time in AAA, Chavez is a solid backup. This is a good move. Ask any of the young pitchers how valuable Bradley is. Expect good things from Duckworth this year. Plus, he presides over the Kangaroo Court. You can't put a pricetag on that.
2 year deal? I was thinking they would sign him for this year, then bring up Buck next year. I wonder if the Astros plan on having Ausmus as a backup next year. I think it would be good to have Ausmus around to help Buck along when he comes up.
Brad Ausmus is a 34 year old catcher. I think he wanted security and with the 2 year deal he gets just that. Great resigning by the astros.
It's about time that cheapskate spent some money. I think Ausmus is good for the team, although I hope they clear the way for Buck at some point during the season after next.
I heard the deal was $2 mil per year. If so, I've given up on the Astros. I'd much rather have the team overpay for talent(Hidalgo/Wagner at 12/8 mil), then overpay for automatic-out in Ausmus. I hope this is actually to be a minimum deal for Ausmus to be only a part time catcher. But that's unlikely.
San Diego gets screwed in this deal. They were the only other team to pursue Ausmus, but it looked like they were going to get a solid catcher from Oakland in Ramon Hernandez. Now it looks like that deal is falling through and the Pads are left with no catcher.
