EVERY-THING SPORTS
Houston Astros proving that sometimes no deal, is the best deal
Jun 8, 2022, 11:12 am
Letting Carlos Correa walk looks like the right decision, so far. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
I remember when the Astros were perennial losers. They stripped the organization down and decided it was time to start it over. Tanking, trusting the process, rebuilding...whatever you want to call it. The decision was made to hit the reset button. It was necessary. The team had fallen on hard times when vets were past their prime and the minors weren't bearing much fruit. The worst records receive the highest draft picks. Following the 2011 season, general manager Ed Wade was fired, and Jeff Luhnow was brought in to replace him.
Almost five months before he was let go, Wade kicked off the rebuild drafting George Springer 11th overall in the 2011 draft. Luhnow followed by drafting Carlos Correa 1st overall in the 2012 draft. What followed was a systematic reconstruction of the organization. Fast-forward 10 years, and those two guys left in back-to-back offseasons. The blow of Springer's loss was softened by the guys the team could use in the outfield. Correa's loss was a bit scarier because shortstop is a key defensive position. Both guys provided the intangibles teams look for in leaders. When those same guys are two of your best players, it hurts a little more, but baseball is a business and business decisions were made.
Correa's loss has been offset by the play of rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña. Peña has wowed the audience with his defense and has shown flashes at the plate. He may not have Correa's cannon or range, but he's proven to be a suitable replacement. While plugging him in at shortstop was a smart move and inexpensive, how else did they spend the money saved?
The most obvious is also the most recent move, when the team was able to locked up Yordan Alvarez to a new six-year deal worth $115 million dollars. Alvarez has proven to be one of the best young hitters in the game, mainly because of his ridiculous power. He's also been able to keep a decent batting average. His knee injuries derailed him some, but they seem to be behind him. Playing in the outfield isn't his strong suit, but the new universal designated hitter rule makes him even more valuable. The fact that they were able to lock him in before arbitration and free agency is amazing.
Perhaps not as obvious was re-signing closer Ryan Pressly. He's held down that closer role, or at least a bullpen role, since he was acquired via trade before the 2018 deadline. His two-year deal with an option for a third year helps shore up one of the pressing needs this team has had for a few seasons. He's been moved around in the pen, but has settled in as the closer. His ability and willingness to move around the pen gives the team a reliable arm anywhere from the 7th to 9th innings. The analytics crew loves his spin rate, which is why they traded for him.
One other move I'm hoping they make is to lock up Kyle Tucker. Looking at what Alvarez signed for, Tucker may want more since he's just as good at the plate and is a plus in the outfield defensively. While Tucker is only a few months older than Alvarez, I could easily see him asking for more. However it all works out, I think James Click has done a decent job replacing Luhnow and keeping the train moving in the right direction. Click was placed in a tough spot. The sign-stealing scandal set the team back some as far as restocking the minors, but Click also had to contend with impending free agents. So far, so good. Jim Crane is undoubtedly somewhere smiling, knowing he's managed to push all the right buttons in hiring Click to replace Luhnow.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”