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Why it's time to shift focus to the end goal for Houston Texans
May 10, 2023, 5:57 pm
Now, the real work begins. Composite Getty Image.
How Texans most important deadline could make or break GM
The NFL offseason doesn't have a real “offseason.” Most sports have a lull in their offseasons in which there's very little to nothing going on. It's either that, or the happenings aren't very newsworthy. Instead, the NFL has grown to the point where releasing the schedule has become a prime-time tv special. “We're talkin bout the schedule!” (AI voice…the basketball player)
Attaining that level of success takes time, effort, and marketing a product the people want to consume. Cultivating that product and making it want to be constantly consumed takes serious skill. There will be steps along the way that some, maybe even most, may not agree with. However, when the results are as desirable as they have been for the league, you take the good with the bad. The main thing is to keep going and focus on the end goal, not the journey.
Focusing on the end goal and not the journey is something I hope Texans fans are still doing. All the vitriol spewed regarding the draft, the trades, the moves made and so on are tailing off. It's time to move on and focus on the upcoming season. Enough is enough already!
People are entitled to their opinions. Saying one's opinion is wrong can lead to arguments. There are no wrong opinions. There are stupid ones that make very little to no sense and will call you to question that person's freedom to have internet access. Those and similar opinions should be tabled for a while. We do not know whether these guys will be hits or misses until they play. Once they play, give them at least two seasons, then and only then can we judge the moves that were made.
The schedule will be released this week. Rookie mini camps are taking place now or occurred last week. Spring League Meetings take place the end of May. June 1st is when some vets will be cut and can officially sign with other teams. July 1 is the last day for franchise tagged players to sign extensions. Late July/early August is when training camps start. Throughout this time, you'll get updates on players' recovery from offseason surgeries and injuries. There will also be the inevitable trouble some will find themselves in. As you can see, there's a lot to pay attention to.
We also have to keep in mind as outsiders, meaning people who don't work in the building and aren't privy to those conversations, we can't say what they did/didn't do is wrong. We don't know the true plans they have and never will. We can't say with any certainty that they messed up or that it's their greatest draft/offseason.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway I'd like to give fans moving forward is to trust the process. If you believed in Nick Caserio before, don't stop believing now. If you were a fan of the DeMeco Ryans hire a couple months ago, keep that same energy. They were two of the most sought after at their respective positions when hired. Caserio meant so much to New England, they blocked him from interviewing and accepting other jobs for the longest time (remember the tampering charges). DeMeco was THE coaching candidate this past hiring cycle. Bottom line: we get mad at the weather people for not predicting the weather very accurately, yet we still use them daily. They're right more often than they're wrong. Why don't we give our GMs and coaches the same treatment until they prove otherwise?
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”