THE PALLILOG
How the Houston Texans can reach the postseason beyond winning out
Dec 28, 2023, 4:43 pm
Texans playoff scenarios revealed. Composite Getty Image.
If in August the Texans or any Texans’ fan were offered a proposition of win the final two regular season games in order to make the playoffs, only a fool or the most lunatic fringy optimists would have passed. Here we are. Blowout losses within their last three games to the Jets and Browns rub some of the shine off of the Texans’ 8-7 record, but get past the Titans Sunday and beat the Colts next Sunday and playoffs it is. No matter how the Texans finish this has been a season of excellent progress.
That progress is rooted to the arrival and good health of C.J. Stroud, who cleared concussion protocol on Thursday. Without him the last two games the Texans’ offense has been mostly inept, though at least Cleveland has a top tier defense. They were able to overcome often odorous offense to win at Tennessee in large part because the defense snuffed Derrick Henry who mustered a laughable nine yards rushing on 16 carries. His last two times playing at NRG Stadium Henry ran, ran, and ran some more. In 2020 (actually January 3, 2021) he finished off a 2027 yard season with a 34 carry 250 yard tour de force. He missed the 2021 game injured then last season resumed wrecking ball status with 34 carries for 219 yards. Henry turns 30 next Thursday. He’s not the same back and is not running behind the same offensive line. Henry needs 28 yards for his fifth career 1000 yard season. He’ll probably get those, but shouldn’t smear the Texans into the NRG turf as in games past. Henry’s career can be compared very reasonably to that of the legendary Earl Campbell with the Oilers. Each only had three monster seasons. In Henry’s he totaled 5105 yards on 1030 carries (4.96 yards per carry). The “Tyler Rose” rumbled for 5081 yards on 1043 carries (4.87 yards per carry).
There are multiple scenarios in which the Texans can split their remaining two games and make the postseason at 9-8, regardless of which of the two games they win. The ideal 9-8 outcome would have the Texans lose to the Titans then bounce back to win at Indianapolis while the Jaguars cap an epic collapse by losing this week to the 2-13 Panthers and next week to the Titans. That would leave Jacksonville dead at 8-9. Unlikely but not impossible given the way the Jags have played in losing four in a row. Add in a Colts loss to the Raiders this weekend and Presto! The Texans would be 9-8 AFC South Champions. Winning the division outright is the only way they can win it. The Jaguars win a three-way tiebreaker and own the tiebreaker over the Texans. Even should they win at Indy the Texans lose a tiebreaker to the Colts via conference record.
Maldy is moving on
So it turns out no good team wanted the catching genius of Martin Maldonado. Including the Astros. He settled this week for a one-year four million dollar contract with the Chicago White Sox, with a vesting option for 2025 based upon his 2024 playing time. That’s a one million dollar pay cut. Unless ego got in the way, Maldy should have preferred four mil to stay with the ‘Stros as Yainer Diaz’s backup. Except the Astros opted to pay six million per season in their two year deal with Victor Caratini. In the NFL the term “The Room” is sometimes ascribed to a position group, i.e. the Texans have a good “quarterback room” with C.J. Stroud, Davis Mills, and Case Keenum. The White Sox “catcher room” is now chock full of former Astros. Maldonado joins Korey Lee and Max Stassi on the White Sox’ backstop depth chart.
College Football Playoff
Aggie fans probably wouldn’t find it so enjoyable but wouldn’t it be something if over the next three months and change the University of Texas wins the College Football Playoff and then the University of Houston wins the NCAA Basketball Championship. The Longhorns have the talent edge over Washington in their New Year’s Night semifinal Sugar Bowl matchup. However, Huskies’ quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is more dynamic than UT’s Quinn Ewers. Plus there is the variable of uncertainty when teams haven’t played a game in a month. This is the last time that will ever happen with next season’s tripling of the playoff bracket from four teams to 12.
On the hoops side, barring a highly unlikely upset loss to Penn Saturday, Kelvin Sampson’s third ranked UH squad will roll into 2024 and the start of Big 12 conference play undefeated at 13-0. The league opener is against West Virginia which may be the worst team in the Big 12. After that, not that anyone should be unaware, but it will be acutely obvious that the Cougars are no longer in the American Athletic Conference. Last season within league play they faced zero ranked opponents. Seven games loom (five of them on the road) against Big 12 teams presently ranked in the top 21, including two each vs. Kansas and Texas. Should be fantastic. The Coogs are one of three unbeatens remaining in Division One along with James Madison and Mississippi.
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Cam Smith’s reaction to making the Astros Opening Day roster is priceless
Mar 25, 2025, 4:16 pm
It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!
Astros history lives in these moments
It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.
Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).
Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.
Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.
And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).
Here’s to the new season! 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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