Why Astros should approach potential Houston homecomings with an abundance of caution
NOT SO FAST
18 January 2024
NOT SO FAST
The Houston Astros received some disappointing news this week when it was revealed that Kendall Graveman would be out for the season with shoulder surgery.
Which means Houston is losing four members of their top-notch bullpen from 2023. The Astros pen is a big reason for their success the last couple of years, and now they only have two relievers that can be trusted in Ryan Pressly and Bryan Abreu.
Plus, they haven't signed anyone of note to replace them. This week, reports surfaced about the Astros having interest in bringing back Hector Neris. Neris is reportedly seeking a 3-year deal in the neighborhood of $50 million.
That's close to the disaster of a contract they handed Jose Abreu last year, and both players are in their mid-thirties. As good as Neris was last season, it's hard to imagine the Astros signing Neris to a massive deal like this. It's just not what they typically do. Or should do for that matter.
But they need to do something. Outside of Pressly and Abreu, nobody in their current bullpen has any substantial record of success in the big leagues. And that includes Rafael Montero. He had one good year and has been completely ineffective in high leverage situations before and after 2022. With an ERA over 5 in 2023, we're not counting on that guy, and for good reason.
Could Phil Maton be an option to bring back? The Athletic's Chandler Rome reported that Maton has received less interest on the market than some anticipated. He could be an option, and would be significantly more affordable than Neris.
So what are the Astros going to do?
Check the video above as we break it all down.
NFL officials were heavily scrutinized for some of the flags they threw in the four divisional round games that saw the Chiefs, Bills, Eagles and Commanders advance to next weekend's conference championships.
Yet, it was one play that didn't draw a flag that could prove a most consequential non-call if the NFL decides to join the NBA and NHL in seriously cracking down on floppers, as ESPN broadcaster Troy Aikman suggested during the Texans-Chiefs game.
NFL players can be penalized for the big umbrella “unsportsmanlike conduct" infraction, but there isn't an official rule against flopping, and Aikman urged the league to address that during one of his several conversations with Joe Buck over the officiating in the Chiefs' 23-14 victory.
On the same possession where he benefited from his late slide that caused two Texans players to crash into each other, drawing a widely panned unnecessary roughness flag, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes appeared to try to deke referee Clay Martin's officiating crew into throwing another flag to aid Kansas City's drive, which ended with a touchdown that put the Chiefs up by eight in the fourth quarter.
Scrambling to his left, Mahomes pulled up just as he went out of bounds. When linebacker Henry To'oTo'o tapped him, Mahomes threw himself dramatically to the ground but failed to fool the officials — or impress Aikman, the Hall of Fame quarterback who earlier took umbrage at the roughing-the-passer call against Houston.
“He’s trying to draw the penalty. Rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down," Aikman protested. "And that’s been the frustration, and I get it. I understand it. That’s been the frustration for these defensive players around the league.”
Earlier in the drive, Aikman said he “could not disagree" more with the roughing penalty called on To'oTo'o and defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi, who smashed into each other and made incidental contact with Mahomes, who was underneath them after his late slide.
When Martin announced the penalty, Aikman interjected, “Oh, come on!”
“He’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more, and he barely gets hit,” Aikman said, noting that Mahomes shouldn't have been afforded the extra protections provided quarterbacks in the pocket once he started running on the play. “That’s the second (questionable) penalty now that’s been called against the Texans. … It was a late flag, and it was Clay Martin who threw it.”
“They’ve gotta address it in the offseason,” Aikman added.
ESPN's rules analyst Russell Yurk concurred that no flag should have been thrown on the play.
After the game, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans suggested that his team expected the Chiefs to benefit from the officiating: “We knew going into today it was us versus everybody. And when I say everybody, it's everybody.”
Yurk also disagreed with a roughing-the-passer flag on Texans pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. in the first quarter that erased a three-and-out by Kansas City, which went on to score a field goal on that drive: “It looked like that first contact was to the upper chest area. I didn’t see anything there that supported a foul,” Yurk said.
Martin, the referee, told a pool reporter after the game that on the Anderson penalty, “I had forcible contact the face mask area,” and on the To'oTo'o infraction, when the quarterback slides, “he is considered defenseless. The onus is on the defender. I had forcible contact there to the hairline, to the helmet.”
Walt Anderson, the longtime NFL senior vice president of officiating who moved into a new role as the league's rules analyst and club communications liaison last year, said Sunday that both calls were correct under the current rules.
Anderson said in an appearance Sunday on the NFL Network that it might be up for debate about whether there was forcible contact on the roughing-the-passer flag in the first quarter, but he emphasized that the league's rulebook calls for officials to throw the flag if there's any doubt whether roughing has occurred.
As for the second foul, where Mahomes slid late, Anderson said the two Texans defenders who crashed into each other made incidental contact with Mahomes once he was on the ground, so replay assist couldn't be used in that circumstance to pick up the flag.
Anderson noted that the league's competition committee could revisit either infraction and tweak the rules this offseason.
Aikman, for one, would like to see the league crack down on flopping, as well.