Houston Astros: Top 30 players in franchise history
By T.A. Mock
16. Brad Ausmus, C, 1997 – 1998, 2001 – 2010
I could pretty much copy what I wrote for Ashby and paste it here for Brad Ausmus. Ausmus was also an excellent defender that caught quite a few really good pitchers, though, not nearly as many legendary guys as Ashby did. Ausmus also didn’t do a ton of work on the offensive end.
Ausmus had a strange arc to becoming an Astro. The team acquired him from the Tigers, then he was traded to the Tigers, then the Tigers traded back to the Astros. The thing that elevates Ausmus above Ashby is Ausmus has three gold gloves to Ashby’s zero.
Ausmus was similar to Ashby offensively yet Ausmus never broke the double-digit home run milestone in a season. He always had a decent average and was never completely useless on offense but he will never be mistaken for an offensive powerhouse.
Ausmus’ defense was just outstanding. He had a great glove, was a great pitch framer, and had a very good arm. He caught nearly half of the stolen base attempts against him multiple times in his career while spending the majority of his time catching over 30%.