Friday, April 06, 2007
Gritty Avs catcher Towles a throw-back type of player
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
A thick layer of dirt stained the front of his uniform and clung to the hairs on his forearms as he walked into the postgame locker room. If J.R. Towles has his way this season, he'll look like this the next 139 times he leaves the field, too.
"I'm hoping so," Towles said after Frederick topped his Salem Avalanche 5-4 on opening night. "This is me right here."
He has his own Web site, jrtowles.net, where you can read about his career, pull up photos of him posing with a dead ram (he loves to hunt) and, for $4.95, even buy a replica of the faith-based bracelet he wears: IBBWJ (Intentional walk with Jesus).
He's a top-step-of-the-dugout-in-the-late-innings guy, a no-batting-gloves-on-a-38-degree-night guy. He's wiry and fidgety, a shot of espresso in a slightly open stance.
Opening night is all about first impressions. And the first impression Salem's J.R. Towles gave Thursday night was pretty clear: You're gonna like him.
How can you not like a former 20th-round draft pick who's worked himself into one of the organization's top prospects? How can you not like a guy who takes time out before games to talk to fans and then spends the next nine innings trying to make them proud?
"I'm lucky to be in the position I'm in," said Towles, a catcher beginning his fourth season in the Houston organization. "I'm doing something a lot of people wish they could do. I'm living a dream."
And he's doing it well.
He can hit for average (.317 at low-A Lexington last year, .346 in Lexington in 2005). He can hit for power (16 home runs last season, home run derby champion at the South Atlantic League all-star game). He can block pitches in the dirt. He can throw out runners.
He can even run a little bit. Towles had 11 stolen bases last year and wasted little time in his Salem debut, swiping second in the first inning.
"It's a bonus," Tom Wiedenbauer, the Astros' minor-league field coordinator, said of the catcher's speed. "I guess the last guy we had like that was Craig Biggio."
Not bad company to keep. And don't bother sniffing around for the "S" word, either. Towles is listed at 6-foot-2, 175 pounds. We should be checking this guy's locker for Dexatrim.
A product of Crosby, Texas, Towles twice passed up opportunities to sign after getting drafted by Oakland. In 2004, he signed with Houston out of junior college and started hustling his way onto the organization's radar. Baseball America rated him Houston's sixth-best prospect this season.
Towles runs hard because that's how he was taught, and you never know who's watching. Among those who were watching Thursday: An announced crowd of 3,334 and Wiedenbauer, who oversees all on-field activity for Houston's minor-league teams.
Towles responded with an RBI single in the third inning that gave the Avalanche their first lead of the young season. Later, as the Avs mounted an eighth-inning rally, he reached and scored a run after hitting a rocket to left field that was scored a two-base error.
"He's got a lot of physical ability," Wiedenbauer said. "But probably his energy level is the biggest thing. I mean, he's on a mission. He plays hard all the time."
Informed of this evaluation, Towles' eyes widened.
"That's news to me," he said, smiling. "They've never told me that. I guess I just play that way because you never know when your last day is going to be."
One thing's certain: His last day wasn't Thursday. And that's good news for Avalanche fans, who have an entire summer to watch this kid roll around in the dirt.
