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Jermaine Every: The Rockets lost. So now what?
May 29, 2018, 6:21 am
Daryl Morey will have to take another run at it. Rockets.com
I was filling in on SB Nation 94.1 yesterday doing the national broadcast in the morning from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. My co-host, and podcast partner, Craig Koshkin and I went over the potential machinations of the impending matchup. Most Rockets fans were very optimistic, especially since the Rockets were at home. Lots of media members weren’t. However you felt going into Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, it captivated the audience.
In the end, I chose the Warriors because they have more firepower, and Chris Paul was out. Craig chose the Rockets because of home court advantage and intangibles. If you know us, you’d know how weird that is. Upon leaving the station, we were asked to do a post game show, to which we happily obliged. I knew it hinged on the Rockets winning, and never had a good feeling about it.
I grabbed some food, went home, took a nap in between watching the Star Wars marathon on TNT and laughing at my crazy kids. I was excited, but felt leery about the Rockets’ chances. I knew the Warriors were going to come in waves and wasn’t confident the Rockets could handle it.
As the first half unfolded, the Rockets were in firm control. They weren’t playing their best, but were up by 11 going into halftime. I left the house and headed to the station. There was a sense of “they may actually pull this off” mixed with “the Warriors are about to make their normal third quarter move.”
Low and behold, it happened. The Rockets missed 27 straight 3-point shots, including 0/14 in the third quarter while the Warriors took the lead and never relinquished it. There would be no need for a post game show. That realization sunk in during the third quarter. I almost left then, but stayed to watch the ending, all the while hoping things would change, knowing there was extremely slim chance of it happening.
Now what? The offseason is here abruptly. Fans are disappointed. I consider this season a failure. General Manager Daryl Morey stated that they were obsessed with the Warriors and had constructed a team to beat them. That didn’t happen. There are several key free agents on this team. Chris Paul and Trevor Ariza are both unrestricted, while Clint Capela is restricted. Losing them could be disastrous. Or could it?
The No. 1 free agent out there will be LeBron James. He’s all but guaranteed to opt out of his player option for next year and test the market. Getting a player of his caliber automatically boosts a team's chances at winning a title. The only way I see him coming to the Rockets is if he loses in the Finals to the Warrior. There is truth to the rumored beef between he and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, and he’s not impressed with the offseason the Cavs produced. However, there is a high probability he stays in Cleveland, or stays in the East. The path to the Finals goes through whatever team he’s on in the East.
Paul George also has a player option he’s all but guaranteed to opt out of this offseason. Playing in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook can be taxing. He wanted out of Indiana, but couldn’t find his way back to his hometown of Los Angeles. This may be his chance. The Lakers will be attractive because they have cap space and young talent to build around. But if he thinks joining the Lakers will topple the Warriors, he’s crazy. George is a juiced up version of Ariza. He’s a good defender, and more potent offensive threat that can create for himself or others. He’s already proven he can play with another star.
Should Capela leave by the Rockets not matching whatever offer sheet he signs, he needs to be replaced. DeAndre Jordan is the first name that comes to mind. He has experience with the pick and roll offense. He also is a better rebounder and rim protector. He’s not versatile enough to switch and cover guards like Capela, but his size and jumping ability guards the rim while changing shots. The Pearland native has made it known he wants to come home, and almost signed with the Mavs a few years ago. Another potentially cheaper option to replace Capela would be Nerlens Noel. He’s only 24, still very skinny, and hasn’t lived up to his potential.
Bringing back Chris Paul is a necessary evil. Sure he’s on the wrong side of 30, but his not being able to go in Games 6 and 7 made a huge difference. He’s made a ton of money in his career and seems as if he’s more concerned about winning, hence him turning down the max extension from the Clippers. The questions remaining about Paul are his age/health, and is he willing to take less in order to build around himself and James Harden?
There are several other guys out there for the Rockets to look at. I’ll dig deeper into potential free agents later on in the offseason. None of these moves are possible unless Morey can unload Ryan Anderson’s albatross of a deal. That deal has stood in the way of a ton of potential moves the team could make. Thank God it prevented them from getting Carmelo Anthony. Morey has turned chicken sh-- into chicken salad before. He’s managed to field a competitive team while rebuilding on the fly. This offseason will be a true test of his skills. For Rockets’ fans, here’s to hoping he can Jedi mind trick the league into giving him the pieces he needs to finally take down the Warriors.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
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 YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.