TABLE TALK
John Granato: Comparing Houston's sports teams and stars to poker chip stacks
Jul 19, 2018, 6:47 am
Yes, Jose Altuve started with...you guessed it, a short stack. But he is doing just fine now. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images
On Wednesday’s show I accidently (or not so accidently) called the Skeeters the first half champions and second half chip leaders. Lance started naming our town’s sports chip leaders. I thought I might break that down a little further by category.
The Team Poker Tournament
The Astros are far and away our chip leaders. They won a bracelet last year and their good fortune has continued this year. They always seem to have an ace in their hand and come up with clutch flops all the time. They’ve had some bumps in the road. They’re shaky on the river. You never know if they can hold on even when they’ve got a big lead in a hand but even with some misplays that they would like to punch themselves in the face over, they are still clearly the team to beat.
The Rockets have a nice stack as well. They won two bracelets in the 90’s and after a long dry spell they looked like they’d win their third in dominant fashion last year. They made it to the final table and were chip leaders with just one team to beat but they couldn’t close them out. It all fell apart when they got their aces cracked. That hurt badly. After that they misfired on 27 straight pots. Instead of playing more conservatively with the lead they just kept firing away until their stack disappeared and they were left wondering if they could ever win it again.
The Texans are one of the short stacks at the table yet still one of the most popular players. They’re Phil Ivey. Everyone loves to watch them and they get all kinds of attention but they rarely ever win. They have bursts when they go on the offensive and come up with huge hands but they find a way to screw up the betting and come away with small pots. To compound the situation they broke their right hand. After that every bet looked awkward. They tried to bluff with weak hands and no one believed them leaving them with practically nothing. The hand looks like it’s healing though and when it does they could be dangerous, maybe even win a bracelet someday.
The Dynamo are also short stacked. They’ve won bracelets in five stud but look outclassed at this table. Seems like they’ve never been able to compete with the big boys here. Still they have a small but loyal chip stack that never seems to leave them. They could gain some confidence with a lot of people watching the World Cup of Poker this summer. It will always be an uphill battle though. They’d be much better off on the European or South American Poker Tours but they like it here and will continue to compete at the highest level.
The Skeeters clearly don’t belong at this table but they have a chip and a chair and that’s all they want. They are content with a seat at the table and will fight for any small pot they can win. They are by far the scrappiest team at the table. They’ve garnered a lot of respect from the other players even though they don’t have the firepower to compete for bigger pots. They’re not going away anytime soon.
The MVP table
Alex Bregman is this year’s chip leader. He’s burst onto the poker scene and in just a few short years has proven to be the most clutch player in the game. He continues to win big pot after big pot with huge unbelievable cards on the river. He doesn’t have a bracelet yet but he’s the best bet to be our next bracelet winner. The players all love him. He’s a trash talker and isn’t afraid to celebrate wins. He’s gotten into some scraps with fans on the rail talking trash but no one seems to care as long as he keeps coming up clutch he’s going to be the fan favorite.
Jose Altuve is next with a bunch of chips still in play from last year’s bracelet winning performance. He started with the shortest stack in the field. No one thought he could even get into the game but here he is with a win last year and a big stack again this year.
James Harden has the next biggest stack. He won a bracelet last year as well but his struggles on the river continue. Two years ago he folded with the best hand in a big tournament in San Antonio but he bounced back nicely from it thanks to some tips from his buddy Chris Paul. Chris left him though and James reverted back to his old ways in his last tourney and lost a tough one by misplaying his hand late after building a big chip lead. If he figures out how to play the river he’ll be a champion one day.
Justin Verlander is still up there with the best players. He’s the new guy at the table but he’s certainly not new to the game. He came over from the Detroit Poker Tour where he was by far their best player. Everyone loves what he brought to the table. He’s made everyone around him better.
JJ Watt with his 3 bracelets is still up there among the chip leaders despite not playing a hand in what seems like years. He’s the Doyle Brunson of this group. He’s larger than life. The fans love him but his best days are behind him. Yet here he is with a bunch of chips and the biggest rooting section on the rail.
Deshaun Watson is the biggest wildcard in this field. He hasn’t been playing long but he built up a huge stack with some big hands and then nothing. As an amateur he showed that he can play with anyone finishing runner-up and then winning the college tournament. If he can stay in more hands he is almost certain to be one of the best players in the field but he’s got to prove he can do it over the long haul.
Carlos Correa has been bleeding chips lately. As a younger player he was thought to be the next sure thing but maybe expectations were too high for him. He has unbelievable talent but he sits out way too many hands. You can’t win if you keep folding and Carlos has been folding a bunch. Needs to get back in the game and show what he can do.
George Springer is coming off his first World Series bracelet winning performance but it hasn’t been going well for him lately. He’s taken some big swings at huge pots but come up empty. He can’t keep whiffing on them if he’s going to win another bracelet. The question is how much longer he’ll be at the table. Will he outlast Altuve, Correa and Bregman? There aren’t enough chips for all of them. Who’s the odd man out? We’ll soon see.
Dallas Keuchel is clearly the short stack at the table. He won a bracelet in 2015 but those days are long behind him. He’s been playing better of late but dug himself a huge hole. His problem is he doesn’t play fast enough. The other guys are catching up to his moves and stealing pots from him. He’s slow and steady though and making some nice plays lately. Don’t count him out now but this just may be his last tournament here. Odds are he’s moving on and playing in another game next year.
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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.