THE PALLILOG
Astros have to wonder if history will repeat itself with Yankees in town
Jul 9, 2021, 10:40 am
Could the Astros lose another star player to the Yankees in free agency? Composite image by Jack Brame.
Astros have to wonder if history will repeat itself with Yankees in town
The Astros failing to cap a three game sweep of the A's was a missed opportunity, but credit to Oakland for a day. Winning another series has the Astros four and a half games out front in the American League West. There's a lot of baseball left but if you are offered the Astros today at 1:3 odds to win the division (making them 75% likely to win it), taking them is the right play. Oakland is usually outstanding at getting more out of less, and one never knows how the injury bug is to bite, and lastly sports happens. Still, it's crystal clear that the Astros have the better team.
Now the Yankees are in for the weekend, presenting an excellent opportunity for Astros' fans to take the high road and greatly outclass the Yankees' fans who had nothing more creative up their sleeves and in their vocal cords than to chant vulgarities over nine innings for three games in a row when the Astros were in the Bronx back in May. There no doubt will be some Yankee fans inside Minute Maid Park, and it seems likely more vulgarities will ensue. Neither the language I use in everyday life off the radio nor my sense of humor are G-rated pure as the driven snow stuff. But there is time and place. A Major League ballpark is not such a time or place. It would be tremendous if Astro fan retorts were along the lines of "Kiss Our Rings, Kiss Our Rings..." or "En-joy Fourth Place, (bum, bum, BUM, BUM, BUM), Enjoy Fourth Place…"
I'm cautiously pessimistic.
The highlight pitching matchup of the series is Saturday night with Zack Greinke opposite Gerrit Cole. The Yankees last losing season was 1992. That's 28 consecutive winning seasons! They hit town this weekend at 44-42. Their supposed to be vaunted offense has been feeble much of 2021. The Astros have scored a whopping 130 more runs than have the Yankees. The Astros have played two more games. I'm pretty sure the Yankees wouldn't make up 130 runs in two games.
Could the Yankees target Carlos Correa in free agency?
Astros' MVP to this point? Carlos Correa. Carrying an 0 for 13 streak into the weekend, Correa has cooled off from the MVP level ball he'd played for over a month, but he has an outstanding season going starting with the critical ability that is availability. Correa has played in 82 of the Astros 88 games to date. He only missed two games in the short 2020 60 game regular season, but wasn't a good player. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 Correa missed 53, 52, and 87 games respectively. Only in 2016 has Correa stayed healthy and played well over a full length campaign. He was very good in '16, but not what 2021 Correa has been thus far. So…
Yankee shortstop Gleyber Torres has been awful this year. Even when hitting to potential he's not a good defender at short. The Yankees could miss the postseason for the first time since 2016. They haven't played in the World Series since 2009. Unless the Dodgers opt to move on from Corey Seager, the Yanks loom as the biggest spending team that could be in the market for Correa.
Are you ready for some football?
The Texans open training camp three weeks from today. Are you giddy with excitement? Didn't think so. What happens if Deshaun Watson shows up? I'm not sure he actually shows, but he has incentive to at least claim he's going to do so. If Watson holds out he incurs automatic fines of 50-thousand dollars per day. If Watson sends word that he plans to show, that creates multiple possibilities. The big one is making NFL commissioner Roger Goodell act, specifically by placing Watson on the Commissioner's Exempt List if the league wants no part of a Watson/Texans circus while the league investigation of all the sordid accusations against Watson continues. If Goodell places Watson on the list, Watson can't be a holdout and hence could not be fined. If on the list all season Watson would be paid in full. If Goodell chooses to not sideline Watson, do the Texans say "stay away," in which case they'd have to pay Watson, or welcome him in? In which case would Watson actually show or having had his bluff called hold out and forfeit 50K per day? As The Texans Turn. Right now, a pretty pathetic soap opera.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. So James Harden is in France for Paris Fashion Week. Taking advantage of again not being part of NBA Finals weeks. If not so focused on his task at hand one presumes Chris Paul would find this quite funny.
2. Here's hoping Dustin Poirier again dominates Conor McGregor, the way he did in January.
3. Best soap operas: Bronze-Days of Our Lives Silver-Melrose Place Gold-Dallas
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Dusty Baker has won the fourth Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Baseball Digest.
The beloved Baker retired following the 2023 season after spending 56 years in the majors as a player, coach and manager. He was honored Thursday with an annual distinction that “recognizes a living individual whose career has been spent in or around Major League Baseball and who has made significant contributions to the game.”
Willie Mays won the inaugural award in 2021, followed by Vin Scully in 2022 and Joe Torre last year.
“Receiving this award is a tremendous honor,” Baker said in a news release. “I never thought that I’d be in the class of the people that received this award. I know that my late mom and dad would be proud of me. This is really special.”
The 74-year-old Baker broke into the big leagues as a teenager with the Atlanta Braves in 1968 and played 19 seasons. He made two All-Star teams, won two Silver Slugger awards and earned a Gold Glove in the outfield.
He was the 1977 NL Championship Series MVP and finished fourth in 1980 NL MVP voting before helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1981 World Series.
Following his playing career, Baker was a coach for the San Francisco Giants from 1988-92 and then became their manager in 1993. He won the first of his three NL Manager of the Year awards with the Giants that season and spent 26 years as a big league skipper, also guiding the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros.
Baker took all those teams to the playoffs, winning 10 division crowns, three pennants and finally a World Series championship in 2022 with the Astros. He ranks seventh on the career list with 2,183 wins and is the only manager in major league history to lead five franchises to division titles.
In January, he returned to the Giants as a special adviser to baseball operations. Baker's former team is 7-18 under new Astros manager Joe Espada.
“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am honored to congratulate Dusty Baker as the 2024 recipient of Baseball Digest’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins an incredible club," Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "Dusty represents leadership, goodwill, and winning baseball. His ability to connect with others, across generations, is second to none. He is a championship manager and player. But, most importantly, Dusty is an extraordinary ambassador for our national pastime.”
Baker was selected in voting by an 18-member panel from a list of candidates that also included Bob Costas, Sandy Koufax, Tony La Russa, Jim Leyland, Rachel Robinson and Bud Selig, among others.