EVERY-THING SPORTS
We now have a crystal clear answer to this burning Houston Texans question
May 4, 2022, 11:17 am
Nick Caserio and Lovie Smith are calling the shots for the Texans. Composite image by Brandon Strange.
Vision is one of those things we tend to take for granted. Let's be honest, do we truly appreciate all the sights we get to see? When was the last time you were impressed when you saw something so simple as some flowers? Good vision is even more precious. Cleaning my glasses 400 times a day is annoying, but so is making sure my hands are always clean when cleaning my contacts and using the rewetting drops when my eyes dry out from wearing them. I want to do Lasik, but don't want to pay for it, so I'm taking volunteers to sponsor my surgery in case anyone is interested.
Vision isn't limited to being able to physically see. It can also stand for casting a vision on your outlook on things. A plan for a course of action can be a vision. That's exactly what we're seeing with Texans' general manager Nick Caserio. After executing the Deshaun Watson trade, I wrote about how he needs to hit big with the haul he got in the next few drafts. To come into your first general manager job with a six-year deal as one of the highest paid GM's in the league, but having to rebuild a team that has fallen so hard so fast was no easy task. It was made more difficult when the franchise quarterback wants out and has complications as to why he couldn't be traded.
To make his job even more difficult, the perception that team owner Cal McNair was akin to Tommy Boy and his team chaplain/life coach/executive vice president of team development/executive vice president of football operations, Jack Easterby, was a sort of boogeyman. Cal has since proven to be a billionaire who inherited the lead role in ownership and has hired the people he thinks are right to run his team, while letting them do their jobs. Meanwhile, Easterby has been quiet as a church mouse. Long gone are the misconceptions that he's the one pulling the strings as a puppet master on Kirby.
The way Caserio has operated since he took the job initially gave us cause for pause. Too many things fed into the narrative that Cal was easily influenced by Easterby, and it was Easterby who was living his dream to run a team. Sure, Caserio owes Easterby a certain level of gratitude for helping him land the job, but that's where it stops. Caserio is fully in charge. Everything that has gone down on Kirby has his handprints all over it.
Take the draft as a prime example. Derek Stingley Jr. wasn't the consensus third-best player in this draft. He wasn't even considered the best at his position. But because he fits the profile of the type of guy they want playing corner, they took him third overall. The same can be said about fifteenth overall pick Kenyon Green. He wasn't seen as a top 15 prospect, but he fits the profile they want in an offensive lineman. Both were positions of need. Both were seen as very good football players who could come in and help a team right away.
Hiring Lovie Smith as head coach was seen as a safe move given the climate at the time. David Culley was fired after most other coaches were fired at season's end, and the perception that NFL pariah Brian Flores was their leading candidate had to give them some trepidation about hiring him. Lovie had two prior head coaching gigs and knows this is most likely his last chance. But better than all of that, he and Caserio seem to be locked in step. Nothing speaks to that more than the video of them hugging it out in the draft room. If this video and the actions of Caserio don't clear up your vision of who's running things on Kirby, maybe you're the one who needs Lasik.
How 3 major x-factors could tip the scales in Texans-Colts: Week 1
Sep 5, 2024, 7:27 pm
Each football game of a season carries much more weight than one game in a 162 Major League Baseball schedule. That reality, combined with the National Football League campaign opening and with it the most anticipated season in Texans’ history, the Astros are relegated to second banana this weekend. Just the way it goes despite the Astros’ phenomenal extended run from 10 games out of first place in mid-June to now having control of the American League West race and a likely (though definitely not yet certain) eighth consecutive year of postseason play.
It is reality that getting swept out of Cincinnati cost the Astros two games in the standings to Seattle the last two days and trimmed their division lead to four and a half games going into this weekend. There was nothing shameful about getting swept. It’s not as if they choked. They got outplayed and beaten in all three games. Stuff happens within a 162-game season. The 2019 Astros were vastly better than the 2024 Astros. The 2019 ‘Stros posted the best record in franchise history at 107-55. In Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole they had the two best pitchers in the AL. The Reds finished 75-87 in ’19. In the lone Astros-Reds series five years ago, Verlander and Cole started two of the three games. The Reds swept the Astros out of Cincy by scores of 3-2, 4-3, and 3-2. Stuff happens. The following week the Astros called up Yordan Alvarez. There is no Yordan coming to fortify the offense now, but wait! Is that Kyle Tucker's music?
The Astros host the NL champs this weekend
It’s highly unlikely but it’s still a possible World Series preview at Minute Maid Park this weekend with the Astros home for three games versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. The reigning National League Champions woke up under .500 July 11, but since then have been sizzling with 33 wins against just 15 losses. Over the same time frame the Astros are 27-21. The Diamondbacks by a large margin have scored the most runs in MLB this season, and that’s while playing the last nearly three weeks without Ketel Marte because of a high ankle sprain. Marte has been far and away the best second baseman in the game this year. He may return this weekend in a designated hitter role. The Arizona offense overall has been sensational, however it has vulnerability against left-handed pitching, in significant part because it typically takes lefty-hitting platoon beast Joc Pederson out of the lineup. The D’Backs are 55-35 in games facing right-handed starters, just 24-27 in games started by opposing southpaws. The Astros have lefties Framber Valdez and Yusei Kikuchi set to go in the first two games this weekend. While the Astros deal with the Diamondbacks the Mariners are in St. Louis for three against the Cardinals.
Eleven Diamondbacks have had at least 200 plate appearances this season. Only one of them has an OPS below .725. The Astros also have 11 guys with at least 200 PAs. Five of them lug around sub-.715 OPSes: Jeremy Pena (.714), Jake Meyers (.664), Mauricio Dubon (.645), Jon Singleton (.697), and Chas McCormick (.566).
Maximizing Tucker's return
Speaking of returns, Tucker fiiiiiiinally should see action for the first time since his June 3 bone bruise. Oh wait, broken leg. Shame on the Astros for their BSing over this and other injuries. Yeah, Alex Bregman slept funny. Whatever. To boost the lineup Tucker doesn’t have to be the .979 OPS MVP candidate he was when felled. Ben Gamel has done some good work, but over time he’s Ben Gamel. Same for Jason Heyward. If Tucker's legs are under him his power is a B-12 shot and only Yordan is in his league in on-base percentage. Joe Espada has decisions to make as to how slot the batting order. Against a right-handed starter Jose Altuve, Tucker, Alvarez, Yainer Diaz, Bregman one through five makes sense with Tucker dropping down below Yainer against a left-handed starter. No question those are the top five in some order. How much of a workload Tucker is ready for bears watching. Presumably he doesn’t initially play the outfield day in day out. When Tucker DHs obviously Bregman (and Yordan) can’t so Alex’s ailing elbow holding up is key. One might say hopefully the bone chips don’t fall where they may. Tuesday the Astros start a stretch playing 16 days in a row.
Keep hope alive!
If you’re an Astros fan holding out hope of chasing down the second seed to avoid having to play the best-of-three Wild Card series, say it with me, whatever nausea it may induce: “Go Dodgers Go!” Hurt as it might, business is business. The Dodgers play host to the Guardians. The Astros trail Cleveland by five games with just 22 to play, but do finish the regular season with three games at Cleveland. It's pretty much over for the Astros to catch both the Orioles and Yankees.
Season-long trends mean nothing once the playoffs start, and that’s a good thing for the Astros provided they are in the playoffs. They continue to flat out stink in close games. Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds has the Astros record in one-run games at 15-24. In two-run games they are 10-14. Correlatively, the Astros also continue to routinely fail late in close games. The Astros have played 14 games that were tied after seven innings. They have lost 11 of the 14. In games tied after eight innings they are 7-13. Every team loses an extremely high percentage of games when trailing after eight innings, but the Astros haven’t pulled out a single game they’ve trailed going to the ninth. 0-50. Oh and fifty. But hey, the White Sox are 0-92!
*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 The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.