How Houston Astros GM can put his foot down on Montero situation
STONE COLD 'STROS
26 June 2023
Houston Astros relief pitcher Rafael Montero is going through a rough patch, well that might be putting it mildly. With the All-Star break on the horizon, Montero is coming up on a shockingly bad first half of the season.
He currently has the worst ERA of all qualified relief pitchers in MLB (7.76), and he can no longer be counted on to protect a lead. Yet, manager Dusty Baker continues to play him in high leverage situations with little to no success. At least in Montero's case.
So how do the Astros fix him? The team isn't going to cut Montero, he has a boatload of money left on his contract. And relief pitchers are inconsistent by nature, having good years after bad ones regularly. But this just isn't a bad year for Montero, he's unplayable at this point if you ask anyone outside of Dusty.
The team also can't just ship him to Triple A, he's out of options. Astros GM Dana Brown certainly has his hands full. He didn't sign Montero, owner Jim Crane did. And you have to think Baker had some role in the offseason, with no GM steering the ship during free agency. So he has to be careful with this situation as to not ruffle any feathers.
His best bet may be coming up with a fake injury and working on getting Montero fixed on the backfields of a minor league facility. This would also remove him from the active roster, and Baker couldn't be tempted to use him in a game.
Montero needs to come up with a quality secondary pitch to get batters out. Per the Houston Chronicle, Montero's four-seam fastball is an effective pitch. Batters are hitting only .238 against it. But against all of his other pitches, batters are hitting a whopping .405.
Nobody said figuring out this situation would be easy, but the team cannot continue to run Montero out on the field. This isn't 2022, winning the AL West will be much more difficult this year with the Rangers and Angels playing significantly better baseball.
It's time to earn your money, Dana Brown. Good luck, we're counting on you.
How undefeated streaks collide in clash between Texans and road warrior Lions
Nov 7, 2024, 4:41 pm
With the Texans coming off their sorry second half showing at the Jets and the Detroit Lions coming to town riding a six-game winning streak, it has the look of pretender vs. contender Sunday night at NRG Stadium. The 7-1 Lions are obviously the better team but that is no guarantee that they will be the better team Sunday night. The point spread is only three and a half points. It’s not as if a Texans victory would be a stunning upset. The Texans knocking off the Lions would not balance the books for the Detroit Tigers having bounced the Astros from the baseball playoffs last month, but it would be one of the better regular season wins in Texans’ history.
If not upsetting, it certainly isn’t uplifting that Nick Caserio made zero consequential moves before Tuesday’s trade deadline. If you’re a Texans fan it is upsetting, though shouldn’t be infuriating. Claiming off waivers an offensive lineman (Zachary Thomas) who was getting about 10 snaps per game on one of the very worst o-lines in the NFL (New England Patriots) does not qualify as consequential. It’s not as if Caserio could snap his fingers and make a great deal for a legitimate starting left guard. But his job is to build the roster and he made nothing that qualifies as even a modest upgrade to the most glaring weakness on the team. Play can’t be much worse than what Kenyon Green was providing at left guard before his season-ending injury. But Kenyon was only playing because the staff considered him better than Kendrick Green and Jarrett Patterson. Or, Kenyon was getting unwarranted extended run to prove conclusively he was a waste of a first-round draft pick in 2022.
If Caserio believes the Texans are a bonafide threat in the AFC, adding nothing is a clear fail. Any gurgling about “we believe in our guys” as justification for inertia should be scoffed at, unless Caserio or anyone else believes the Chiefs, Bills, Steelers, and Ravens didn’t “believe in their guys.” All those AFC contenders made clear upgrades. This is not talking about the Texans trading high draft choices. Last week the Minnesota Vikings acquired Jacksonville starting left tackle Cam Robinson for a conditional fifth-round pick.
Tale of the tape
As for Sunday, NBC has to be hoping the Texans being 4-0 this season at NRG Stadium bodes well for them, at least giving the Lions a good game. The Texans are with the Chiefs, Bills, Commanders (!), and Bears (!!) as unbeaten at home. On the other hand, the Lions are a perfect 4-0 on the road. The Chiefs and Falcons have also yet to lose on the road.
While hoping that Aidan Hutchinson makes a complete recovery from his multiple leg fractures, the Lions’ beastly defensive end’s absence sure helps the cause of the Texans’ feeble pass-protecting offensive line. Hutchinson was the early leader for Defensive Player of the Year with seven and a half sacks in five games before he went down. The Lions traded for DE Za’Darius Smith from Cleveland this week. It’s unclear whether Smith makes his Detroit debut chasing C.J. Stroud.
The Texans have topped 30 points in a game once this season. The Lions average an NFL-leading 32.3 per game, topping 30 in four of their last five games, only coming up short last Sunday in a rain-soaked 24-14 win at Green Bay. Over those five games quarterback Jared Goff has completed an absurd 83.8 percent of his passes, with 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions. For the season Goff is completing 74.9 percent. If he maintains that number, he’ll break the NFL record of 74.4 that Drew Brees posted with the Saints in 2018.
Third time's the charm?
Only once in their history have the Texans managed three consecutive winning seasons. They went 9-7 in each of them under Bill O’Brien in 2014, ‘15, and ‘16. They did so with three different quarterbacks leading them in passing yardage: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer, and Brock Osweiler (really!). The Lions are two victories from securing their first back-to-back-to-back winning seasons since 1993, ‘94, and ‘95. That was the heyday of the great Barry Sanders at running back. Three different quarterbacks led the Lions in passing yardage those years. You’re probably fibbing if you claimed “I know them: Rodney Peete, Dave Krieg, and Scott Mitchell.”
For Texans’ conversation, catch Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me on our Texans On Tap podcasts. Thursdays feature a preview of the upcoming game, and then we go live (then available on demand) after the final gun of the game: Texans on Tap - YouTube
The Astros are always in season for discussion. Our Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts drop Mondays: Click here to watch!
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