COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF
Del Olaleye: A weekly look at what is going on in college football
Del Olaleye
Jul 25, 2018, 6:07 am
Major Applewhite has big plans for Ed Oliver. Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images
Urban Meyer began his week by firing his recruiting coordinator
Urban Meyer and Ohio State were backed into a corner and had to fire the school’s WR coach as Big Ten Media Day was in full swing. The firing stems from college football insider Brett McMurphy reporting that ex-Ohio State Buckeye WR coach Zach Smith was involved in multiple physical altercations with his now ex-wife Courtney Smith. The earliest reported incident occurred in 2009 according to McMurphy which the Ohio State head coach knew about. Meyer said what you might expect when questioned about firing Smith. He referred to what’s best for the players and the program and let be known it wasn’t a unilateral decision on his part. Other were involved in making the final decision he let it be known.
None of that is even all that interesting. I’d sure like to know why Smith’s actions were deemed a fireable offense when it became public knowledge and not so when it was under wraps. Meyer says there is nothing to an alleged 2015 incident involving Smith and his ex-wife that is also in Murphy’s report. The police department who has jurisdiction agrees with Meyer. They say there is no record of a police report despite McMurphy publishing that he has seen the 2015 report. Smith appeared to be in good standing with the program so a potential 2015 incident that Ohio State knew about could make it extremely uncomfortable for the Buckeyes. Ohio State and Meyer rode the rails for as long they could with Smith. Meyer made it clear that multiple people had a say in the decision to fire Smith.
More Ed Oliver news
Houston coach Major Applewhite says Ed Oliver may see time on offense this season. Applewhite wants to get the ball to the future first round selection in anyway he can. That devil may care attitude could change rather quickly if an undersized cornerback decides go low to get Oliver on the ground. One “he’s slow to get up” situation could change Applewhite’s outlook on playing Houston’s best player both ways. I’m interested to see how many “Heisman Moments” Oliver can compile before caution takes over.
Khalil Tate knew exactly what he was doing
During Arizona’s coaching search after the unexpected firing of Rich Rodriguez one hot name to replace him was Navy man Ken Niumatalolo. Arizona’s star QB Khalil Tate wanted no part of the triple option, a staple of Niumatalolo’s offense and took to twitter to let everyone know about it. In an interview with Bleacher Report, Tate fully admits the tweet was a ploy to affect the coaching search, "I knew exactly what I was doing when I tweeted that out," Tate told Bleacher Report. "I don't do Twitter. When I tweet something, I download the app, tweet, then delete the app from my phone. So when I tweet, it's important." Tate continued, "I had to make sure I was heard, make sure the team was heard, because my teammates didn't want to run the triple option, either. So the idea was to tweet it out, let it get traction, then delete it. I knew people reading it would say, 'Why did he delete it?' But that just magnifies it more."
How impactful was his tweet? We’ll never really know. The Arizona administration will never admit they allowed a player, even if he happens to be their star player, to change the direction of a coaching search. I applaud Tate for attempting to maintain some control over his fate. He plays a sport that generally favors the administrators and coaches over the players. Did Tate’s tweet cause the Wildcats to change course and hire Kevin Sumlin? I hope so.
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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 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.