Houston Astros: All-Time Great Top 25 Roster
By Ron Juckett
ALAN ASHBY – C
Being a catcher is a thankless job. You squat for three hours in awful conditions wearing a mattress and a mask on your front getting hit by bats and balls. There is a reason why catcher and offense are two words rarely used together.
Offensively, Alan Ashby was an average player. With an Adjusted OPS+ of 98 for his 11 seasons with Houston, he rarely hurt his club. As the man responsible for catching some of the biggest strikeout artists and egos of the era, Ashby more than held his own.
Traded to Houston from the expansion Toronto Blue Jays in 1978 for Mark Lemongello and two others, Ashby became a backstop fixture in the Astrodome for the entire 1980s.
Not a great defender or owning the best of arms, what he did well was call pitches and kept the focus of his battery mates.
When healthy, he could pop around 10 homers a year. He also had a good batting eye, never striking out more than 70 times a year.
Catching all six games of the 1986 NLCS against the Mets, his two-run shot in the second inning of Game 4 gave Mike Scott enough offense to give Houston a 3-1 win and tie the series at two.
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