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USA Today's Bob Nightengale is reporting that the Astros have reached an agreement with Dusty Baker to be the new manager of the Astros.
The Houston #Astros and Dusty Baker have reached agreement on a short-term deal to become their new manager
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 29, 2020
Nightengale reported on Tuesday that Baker would be the Astros next manager, and now The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal has confirmed the report.
Here’s Bob confirming one year and a club option for Baker. Possible #Astros also go short-term with GM and reassess at season’s end. https://t.co/fvtm60p3pl
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 29, 2020
For more thoughts on how the hiring of Dusty Baker will impact the Astros, be sure to check out Chris Campise's article here on SportsMap.
Now that Houston has hired their manager, they can focus on hiring a GM to replace Jeff Luhnow. Peter Woodfork, MLB's vice president of baseball operations, and former San Francisco Giants GM Bobby Evans are both in contention for the position.
Coming off a huge upset win over the Bengals this Sunday, CJ Stroud is now firmly in the MVP conversation with the team at 5-4, one game behind the Jaguars in the AFC South.
Stroud also leads the NFL in passing yards per game, and TD to Int ratio. And man is this offense fun to watch. Nobody pushes the ball down the field more effectively than Stroud and the Texans. So let's give some credit to the pass catchers.
With wide receiver Nico Collins missing the game due to injury, Stroud connected with Noah Brown 7 times for 172 yards. Brown's performance over the last 2 weeks has been incredible.
In fact, the Texans have 2 of the top 3 receivers when it comes to yards per catch. Brown is first with 20.9. Nico Collins is third at 17.5. Brown is also 10th in the league when it comes to yards per game (87.8).
One of the other factors that helped the Texans secure a victory this Sunday was their improvement in the running game. The Bengals struggle to stop the run, and Devin Singletary was able to capitalize with 150 yards on 30 attempts.
Finally, let's discuss the defense that was able to go into Cincinnati and beat Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase. DeMeco's crew was able to sack Burrow 4 times, and Sheldon Rankins had three of those sacks. He also just missed another with about 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
The game actually shouldn't have been this close, as Stroud made a big mistake trying to force a ball to Tank Dell late in the fourth quarter, which resulted in an interception.
Thankfully, the Texans were able to keep the Bengals out of the end zone as Tyler Boyd dropped a touchdown, which led to a Bengals field goal.
It sure is nice to be able to learn from mistakes while still winning the game. And without that poor decision, we don't get to see Stroud finish another game-winning drive, leading his team to victory in back-to-back weeks.
Be sure to watch the video above as we break down what this win means for Stroud and the Texans moving forward.
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