RAMPANT ASTROS HATE

These Astros haters join chorus of sore loser culture

These Astros haters join chorus of sore loser culture
It's open season on the Astros. Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images.
Here's an exclusive peek at the madness inside Yankee Stadium with the Astros in town

This week after the World Series games, especially the Astros 7-2 win Wednesday, I've hopped on the Internet machine and streamed national sports talk shows and a couple local programs from the axis of Astros haters, Atlanta, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Just to hear what those hosts and fans had to say. I realize the Astros aren't the darlings of baseball fans, and I didn't expect to hear Hail Caesar … but wow!

It's like a federal trial: the U.S. vs. the Astros, with everybody in Houston held as accessories to a felony crime committed in 2017.

I guess it's true, the whole country wants to spit on the 2017 World Series graves of the 2021 Astros.

There were the expected cries of "Cheaters!" and "Crooks," which admittedly would be accurate and deserved if they were talking about the 2017 Astros. But they weren't. They were wanting to rustle up the current Astros and run 'em out of town on the next train. Expel them from MLB, the whole lot, past and present. Callers want a congressional investigation of the Astros organization, and you know how speedy and effective those are. Congress is still undecided whether George Washington had accomplices when he chopped down the cherry tree.

Callers were angry that Astros infielders – Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel – were never personally punished for the sign-stealing scandal years ago. Actually, I'm with the callers on that. It was weird that the crime committers emerged unscathed and allowed to go on their merry, multimillion dollar way. I also thought it was odd that some, I said some, local talk hosts were foaming at the mouth attacking former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers for whistleblowing on the Astros. You know, snitches get stitches, and in Martin Scorsese movies, end up in ditches. The talk hosts should have been angry and embarrassed by the Astros, not Mike Fiers.

Four years later, the number of Astros on the current roster wearing 2017 World Series rings wouldn't fill one hand. If you expected baseball fans to forgive and forget and move on, you're sorely wrong. And it may be that the Astros are forever villains around MLB country. Images are hard to shake. Lance McCullers Jr.'s junior will be jeered in Boston

Talk show callers believe the Astros are still cheating, somehow, some way. They wondered if the Astros opened the roof so bribed pilots could flash signals from low-flying aircraft. Seriously.

It's open season on the Astros. Fans tore into every little thing. One national host insisted the Astros orange jerseys are the ugliest in MLB. Fair enough, just remember the playground rule, no mocking mothers.

Fans who say the Astros cheated their way into the World Series maybe should admit their teams just weren't good enough. We've become a country of sore losers from the top down. At least from the former top down. Whatever happened to gracious losers who "tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy?" Instead we have a college football coach now blaming his players for losses.

A White Sox pitcher, Boston announcers and columnists, other players, talk show callers … the Astros are lying, cheating scoundrels and they should be banned from baseball forever.

Around the dial, fans said the Astros were bad role models teaching children that cheating was OK. Bad sportsmanship is the key to winning. The Braves are good, the Astros are evil. Lock 'em up. Disgusting, the worst of the worst professional athletes. Bregman, Altuve and Correa are the three cheaters of the apocalypse. Hey, you forgot Yuli Gurriel as the fourth horseman in that impressive New Testament reference.

I liked this one: a host suggested that the reason fans have stopped bringing trash cans to stadiums is because of the interruption in America's supply chain.

Now the World Series moves to Atlanta, where they've got their own problems. After the final out, check out sports talk stations from around the country, especially if the Astros win. That's the real post-game show.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

ESPN Houston 97.5 FM
Gerrit Cole and Hunter Brown share the same agent now. Composite Getty Image.

There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.

Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.

The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.

But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.

The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.

Astros pitcher hires a new agent

Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.

But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.

With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.

However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.

Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).

Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.

I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.

There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?

Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.

If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.

One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.

Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.

It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.

The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.

Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?

After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.

And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.

So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.

Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.

Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!

*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

_______________

Fans of Houston sports and Houston food can now score tickets to The Tailgate, CultureMap's all-out party devoted to everyone’s favorite way to get in the gameday spirit. The event, presented by Verizon, goes down from 6-9 pm November 11 at 8th Wonder. Tickets are $75 for VIP and $50 for General Admission. For a limited time, we’re giving you $10 off; use code SPORTSMAP at checkout. Get your tickets now!

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome