How national media's latest Astros double standard could be its most egregious
PRESENTED BY COORS LIGHT
03 January 2024
It's officially 2024, and before you know it, the Houston Astros will be reporting to Florida for Spring Training and preparing for the upcoming season.
The club came just one game short of going to the World Series for the third consecutive year. You would think that the Astros' sustained excellence (7-straight ALCS appearances, 2 championships) would have the sign-stealing scandal firmly in the rearview mirror.
Especially with a new sign-stealing scandal to talk about with the University of Michigan football team. But that's clearly not the case. The Astros are still taking shots from broadcaster Al Michaels, and even on television (The Simpsons) just a couple of weeks ago.
What's even more alarming is the fact that Michigan was punished for behavior that sounds very similar to what the Astros were punished for doing. But the big difference is, nobody is talking about it or seems to care.
Michigan is currently in the news cycle as they prepare to play in the National Championship game, and it's like nothing happened. During their semi-final win over Alabama, the broadcast team didn't spend the huge portions of the game discussing coach Jim Harbaugh and the cheating Wolverines.
Shows like First Take and Undisputed aren't doing daily topics about Michigan cheating. And yet, every time the Astros are in the playoffs, 2017 gets brought up over and over again. Which is wild because Michigan was punished for sign-stealing just THIS season, and it hardly gets talked about.
But with the Astros, they can't stop talking about a scandal that happened almost SEVEN years ago! So why the hypocrisy? Is it because Michigan hasn't won anything yet? Would they get more heat if they had won the championship and the public didn't find out about the sign-stealing until after the fact?
Perhaps it's the way the Astros handled the blowback. Jim Harbaugh denied any knowledge of sign-stealing, he served a short suspension and the investigation was closed. No big deal. Yet Jose Altuve, who didn't even benefit from the sign-stealing, is one of the most hated athletes in pro sports. There are even conspiracy theories about buzzers that people still believe to this day. When the Astros win a playoff series, people say it's because they're still cheating.
But when's the last time you heard broadcasters talking about the Yankees and Red Sox cheating? It's like the Apple Watch scandal and MLB's letter to the Yankees never existed. So why the double standard with the Astros?
Be sure to watch the video above as we discuss the disproportional hate for Houston, and if the organization has regrets about confessing to the accusations.
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Presented by Coors Light.
How Houston Rockets hold the cards for a franchise-changing summer
May 8, 2025, 5:45 pm
It’s been a slog on the treadmill of mediocrity for the Astros thus far in 2025. Their 18-18 record heading into a weekend series at Daikin Park vs. the Reds is appropriate. Plenty of good teams will have similar stretches this season. The Astros have to prove that this year’s edition is a good team. Plenty of time for that remains. Reminder that the breakout 2017 Astros had a 74-game stretch over which they went 37-37. 162 games allow for a lot of ebb and flow. Of course, the 2025 Astros’ roster is not close in quality to that of the 2017 squad. The point isn’t that this team could be a 101-game winner but that the 88 victories good enough for a playoff spot last year are still quite plausible this year.
The Rockets achieved mediocrity last season after three seasons as a laughingstock. This season they made the leap to good. While curling up and succumbing to Golden State in the decisive game seven of their first-round playoff series was a disappointment, the Rockets are in excellent position moving forward. Where they go from here should be quite interesting,
OF COURSE the Rockets are going to explore trading Jalen Green. He is obviously their most physically gifted player, but his consistent inconsistency is exasperating. Green’s series against the Warriors was basically an embarrassment with the exception of his 38-point game two outburst. The other six games, a meager nine-point-two points per game. That Green is still just 23 years old means it is not near obligatory they move on from him as Green starts a three-year 105 million dollar contract extension. However, the state of his game and comparison to a few specific players cast enough doubt about Green’s ceiling that declaring him “untouchable” would be ridiculous. During the Golden State series, an NBA play-by-play guy who I think is very good overall once referred to Green as the “Rockets’ superstar.” Anyone, including Green himself, who calls him a superstar either misspoke, was caught up in a moment, or is clueless.
Jalen Green just finished his fourth NBA season. Fairness requires noting that his first two seasons were compromised by being on atrocious Rockets’ squads. That said, Green was on 41-41 and 52-30 teams the past two seasons. In neither of him did he shoot a league average percentage either overall or from behind the three-point line. He did approach the three-point league average of 36 percentage made with his 35.4. That Green is an 80 percent career free throw shooter gives hope the three-point shooting can further develop. Better shot selection sure would help.
Green was the second overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, one year removed from high school. The player taken ahead of him was Cade Cunningham who also played just one year out of high school before going NBA. Cunningham joined a joke Detroit Pistons team. Cunningham is a much better player than Green at this point.
Other shooting guards who played one year after high school then jumped to the NBA, who were markedly ahead of Green after four NBA seasons include Anthony Edwards (first pick in his draft class), and Shae Gilgeous-Alexander (11th), and Devin Booker (13th). In comparison to each Green is a disappointment, though certainly not a bust.
What is head coach Ime Udoka’s bottom-line belief in Green fulfilling his potential? My guess is that cup is not overflowing. The Rockets’ half-court offense simply is not of championship caliber. Can it evolve there with Green, or is he better used as a piece in a trade offer with other players plus draft picks for a Booker or Kevin Duran? The Phoenix Suns are a near assets-less mess of a franchise in dire need of a reset. Durant will be 37 years old when next season starts, but is still a tremendous offensive player who would be a gargantuan half-court offense upgrade for the Rockets. The Rockets have so much draft capital that offering two or three first round picks plus Green, Cam Whitmore, and another player or two to make the salary cap math work would A: not empty out the Rockets’ flexibility going forward and B: have to get the Suns’ attention. If I’m Udoka and General Manager Rafael Stone, I’m making the call.
Courtesy of the Suns, the Rockets hold what is currently the ninth pick in the NBA Draft. The draft lottery is Monday night. The Rockets’ have a three-point-eight percent chance of winning it and the right to make Duke freshman superstar (and Final Four loser to UH) Cooper Flagg the number one pick. There is a 13.5 percent chance the Rockets move up to pick two, three, or four. Otherwise, it’s ninth, or lower if another team or teams vault up the lottery board.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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