OFF THE TOP OF MY BALD HEAD
Barry Warner: On the Astros, Bob McNair, The Masters overreaching, the NFL draft and the Rockets
Apr 10, 2018, 5:57 am
Astros owner Jim Crane went above and beyond. Photo by Joshua Jordan
The World Series champs finished their first homestand with a 5-1 record.
Not only did Jim Crane exceed the previous record of employee rings, he also paid the taxes for each individual. Thursday night when he presented a ring to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, it was because Landry’s is a big sponsor of the Astros. I did not see him giving one to the formerly beloved owner of the Texans, Bob McNair.
The trade with the Pirates for Gerritt Cole has been a steal thus far. In Saturday night’s bizarre win, he went seven scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts. Cole's 22 strikeouts are a club record for a pitcher in his first two starts with the Astros.
Last night in Minnesota, where temperatures dipped into the 20’s, they won 2-0, with Justin Verlander striking out 9 in six innings.
It is absurd for MLB to allow a game played in those type of conditions. It shows once again the greed of owners.
McNair at it again
The philanthropic Texans owner continues to make national headlines, this time for his interview with the Wall Street Journal where his only regret for the “inmates are running the prison’’ comment was “The main thing I regret is apologizing. I really didn’t have anything to apologize for.”
According to the reporter, Andrew Beaton, the Texans owner wanted to set the record straight.
Close friends and confidants tell me he is still sharp, on top of several topics other than football. There are no after effects from the chemo treatments when the cancer hit five years ago.
Once again, my advice is simple. Do not talk to the media, here or anywhere. At this stage, only bad things happen.
It has become a PR nightmare, but no one on Kirby Dr. will tell him no.
He still denies meeting with the 2008 Texans’ players and staff after Barack Obama was elected President. The staunch, conservative owner consistently has donated millions to Republican candidates.
Owen Daniels confirmed McNair’s talk to the team when on with John and Lance on ESPN 97.5. Eric Winston did the same on the Texans Propaganda Network.
I’ve spoken to several other players and former assistant coaches who confirmed the same. I have been in this business for 62 years and never heard an owner do something like that.
Sad that a man who has done so much with his money for our community has tainted his legacy.
A local angle at pretentious Augusta
The semi religious experience at Augusta was turned upside down by the winner of the green jacket, Patrick Reed, holding off Ricky Fowler and Jordan Spieth.
No other sport, including the hypocrites running the NCAA put more of a muzzle on the media than the members of the toughest and snobbiest golf course in the nation. There is no mention of fans; instead they are called patrons.
Augusta rules with an iron fist. All of the past winners of the Green Jacket have been cut from the same mold. But not Reed, who lives here in Spring. He has a rep of not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, being outspoken, cheating and being hated by his college teammates. Like Aaron Rodgers, he blew up the bridge between his parents and siblings.
Being the rebellious spirit I am, it is somewhat refreshing to see a Dennis the Menace personality winning the Holy Grail of Golf.
He is the class clown, the goofball in a Catholic school where the nuns would rap his knuckles with a ruler.
The highlight of the first round to me was defending champ Sergio Garcia putting five balls in the water and taking a record 13 on the hole. The golf gods humble even the best, at times making them look like hackers
CBS got its wish, with Tiger Woods playing on Sunday. But not as a contender. Woods closed with a flurry, shooting a 3-under 69 in the final round and finishing at 1-over 289 for the Masters.
Both his irons and putter were faulty through the 18 holes.
After all of his surgeries and other problems, watching him today is like getting together with an old lover from 10 years ago. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. Hopefully I am wrong and he will win a major at least one more time. The stars must align.
Watching him at his prime was a thrill.
NFL Draft: Who do you trust evaluating QBs?
The Broncos love Josh Allen, despite many in scouting for other teams questioning his football intelligence. But they would be thrilled if USC’s Sam Darnold dropped to five. My sources tell me that John Elway was underwhelmed when Josh Rosen spent the day at the Broncos facility. A couple of GM’s have told me they are truly concerned about the cerebral and socially conscious UCLA quarterback caring more about trying to fix the outside world than football.
I have been privileged to know Gil Brandt. the man whose scouting genius put together the Dallas Cowboys until 1989, when Jerry Jones fired him.
He spoke with si.com’s Peter King in his must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column about the upcoming draft He is the polar opposite of many on Rosen, who is his top choice, followed by Sam Darnold, colorful Baker Mayfield, big armed Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson as first round quarterbacks.
‘‘This will be an incredible extravaganza. for years to come, people will compare every draft to Dallas. the saying everything’s bigger in Texas will definitely apply. we’ll have sections all over the stadium for all 32 teams, and it’ll be like a competition between all the teams and their fans. twelve big-time college coaches will be there—Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Chris Petersen, others. day two’s going to have the same excitement.”
Playoffs are coming
Rockets have home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs, which open here Saturday night. The first opponent will be determined when the regular season ends Wednesday night.
The hottest team in the league is in Philly. Props to Sam Hinkie, the controversial Sixers GM when they would annually tank for the lottery.
The former assistant to Daryl Morey coined the phrase “Trust the Process.” It paid off with a 50-win season, led by Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons and center Joel Embiid.
Chirp!
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
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 eight 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 the 6-10 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. 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.