Tom Brady and the Patriots vs. the Chiefs? Count us in. Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
A spectacular Sunday is on deck for us, is London on deck for the Texans, how bad are the Giants, and getting you ready for the Bills. All for you to drink in on the Friday Stoots Six-Pack:
1. Oh my goodness will Sunday Night Football be a blast this week! Sure, Patrick Mahomes has passed every test he has faced to this point but this is the toughest task of all. The Chiefs defense is not good and Tom Brady and company got going last week and have had a long break to prepare. That also means the greatest coach in the history of football has had time to get his defense and their scheme ready for the "Showtime" second-year star. We will see greatness Sunday night. Either Bill Belichick takes down another promising quarterback or Mahomes continues to amaze.
2. I like the games in London but I prefer them to start early so we can have football all day on Sunday. Also, now we know going to Mexico City doesn't keep you from going to London. The Raiders have been to Mexico City twice in the past two years and now they play the Seahawks across the pond and lose a home game doing so. The Texans are one of the only teams to never play in London, with Green Bay and Carolina being the other ones. It's coming; the Texans are going to go play in England and I believe a game against the Jaguars could occur there next year. Just a guess, but they can't avoid the trip forever.
3. The Giants are one of the worst, and maybe the worst team in football. In large part thanks to Eli Manning's inability to play football at an acceptable level. The Giants should be set going forward though as they will surely have a top pick to spend on a quarterback which they can pair with Saquan Barkley who is just amazing to watch and Odell Beckham who will welcome the change at quarterback. Now, about their one win. It will likely be the last time Eli Manning has looked like himself in the NFL and the Texans should be very upset with themselves they allowed it to happen.
4. DeAndre Hopkins in the best wide receiver in football. Combining longevity of success, durability, and who has thrown him the ball he is the best. He is quarterback proof and not many pass catchers can say that. Earlier this week Bill O'Brien mentioned Hopkins had worked hard on his yards after catch since O'Brien arrived here. I put O'Brien's claim to test and sure enough, he's right. Hopkins has jumped from 13 percent of his yards coming after the catch to 25 percent of his yards coming after the catch last year. He's dipped a little this year, just 16 percent, but you can forgive him. He's on pace for 1,900 total. It doesn't matter how the yards come if he keeps this pace up.
5. The Bills are a bad team and if the Texans have truly turned this around found themselves they won't play down to the Bills level and allow Buffalo to muddy the game up and make it a close one. A good football team, a truly good one, would start fast against the Bills and not look back. Their offense can't score and their defense can't contain Deshaun Watson and Hopkins and company. The Texans can erase, or magnify, some doubts on Sunday.
6. DeShaun Watson has a target on his back and he can't let the opposing defenses get to him. It is OK to take a few hits in the pocket and maybe stand and deliver on a couple of throws but the big crushing hits have to stop. Defenses know when opposing quarterbacks are hurting and while they're heavily protected in the pocket, rushing the football is a different story. With the beating from Sunday night football fresh, Watson has to live to throw another day. Brandon Weeden should play on Suandy, but hopefully it is because the Texans have a huge lead, and not because the injury bug caught up with Watson.
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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.