Duke Ejiofor was all over the field. Zach Tarrant/Houstontexans.com
The 2018 preseason kicked off Thursday night with the Texans claiming a meaningless win in Kansas City, 17-10. The numbers on the scoreboard may not matter, but the effort and playmaking from down the depth chart players is vital to the Texans’ season. There were some big plays from offensive rookies and consistent effort from the young defenders. All of that is a good sign going forward.
Here are my choices for players who had prime performances in the victory.
1. Jordan Akins—Tight End
One of the Texans top draft picks this year, there was high hope that Akins would be able to come in and shine as a receiver. He did exactly what was needed when he scored two touchdowns in the first half. They were his only two catches, but he did exactly what the Texans wanted when they selected him.
The first one was a shallow out route near the goal line. He created separation by running right at the linebacker in coverage, forcing him into the wash. Akins made a good catch on a ball thrown to the front corner where only he could catch it. His second touchdown came on a play the Texans hope to see a lot of this season, a tight end open in the middle of the field with good hands and the ability to make a move with the ball. It’s nice to see this kind of result early in the preseason. It means there is a high ceiling and the opportunity to really help the passing game.
2. Troymaine Pope—Running Back
The biggest offensive contributor of the night, this second-year pro put on a show when Lamar Miller’s night ended. He made huge contributions as a receiver, catching 3 passes for 47 yards, allowing screen passes to be effective at slowing the pass rush. He only averaged 3 yards per carry, but managed good yardage at opportune times. The need for a back to spell Lamar Miller is important and Pope made his case to be that guy.
His biggest play of the night came on a 34-yard screen pass that moved the ball from Houston’s 29-yard line to the Chief’s 37-yard line. It was a huge change of field position that eventually led to the second touchdown of the night.
3. Duke Ejiofor—Outside Linebacker
The sixth round pick made his presence felt all over the field early and often in this game. He’s credited three quarterback hits on the night, but he was applying a lot of pressure when he was in the game. His maximum effort will probably be of interest for special teams because his position already has a solid depth chart, but every team needs a guy with that kind of motor.
4. Julie’n Davenport—Left Tackle
Big position of need for Houston. Big debate about how the position will be filled. Big guy took the first game opportunity to say that the position is going to be his. I was looking closely at Davenport’s play in the first quarter, looking at his fundamentals against a generic pass rush. He passed the eye test.
He was quick into his setup on passing plays, moving his feet with the defender and most of the time keeping him out of his chest. On running plays, he was able to get into the second level and attack the linebackers, giving running backs more room to work with. This is still the preseason, so he will need to keep working hard for more complex pass protection, but game one was a great effort.
5. Dylan Cole—Inside Linebacker
The Texans are lucky, they have a great young pair of inside linebackers with Benardrick McKinney and Zach Cunningham. But if Dylan Cole can continue to make plays like he did against the Chiefs he will add another name to that list. He finished the night with three tackles and two passes defensed. In a preseason game that’s a pretty good stat line. It’s even better that one of those passed he blocked resulted in an interception.
This was a full out effort by Cole to be all over the field. He may not have been credited with more tackles, but just like Ejiofor he made his presence felt. If he has developed significantly in year two he can be useful in creative defensive packages. That’s the kind of thing teams crave when looking at the depth chart.
There you have it. My list of prime performers in the first preseason game. There are three more to go and plenty of chances for more names to show up on the radar. It’s a great start to see this kind of performance from these young guys who are needed at positions that were liabilities last season.
Next week the Texans are home against the 49ers. Look for more guys to step up and get their name on the coaches sheet.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.