THE LONE STAR
In loss to the Ravens, Clowney is one of the few bright spots, as he has been all season
Nov 27, 2017, 10:39 pm
Jadeveon Clowney is one of the few bright spots in a lost season. Houstontexans.com
In this lost Texans season, one defensive player has consistently stepped up. Jadeveon Clowney has become the force the Texans envisioned when they drafted him No. 1 overall.
He has been nothing short of spectacular this season. Clowney picked up his ninth sack of the season in the 23-16 loss to the Ravens. The loss dropped the Texans to 4-7 and essentially ended their slim playoff hopes. But it was not on Clowney. He is second in the league in tackles for losses. He is constantly double teamed. Teams are game planning around him.
He did not get a ton of help Monday night. His special teams was caught off guard on a play that set up one touchdown. Tom Savage threw a terrible pick that set up another score, threw another one late and gave up yet another fumble on a sack -- his seventh of the year, which leads the league. Savage is good for at least two turnovers a game. Monday he had three. Those led to 10 points and would have been more if the Ravens had not run out the clock after the last turnover. That makes it almost impossible to win a game in Baltimore. The turnovers were the difference in the game.
But Clowney more than did his part. While the stat line does not look all that impressive -- two tackles, both for losses with the sack -- he was constantly in the backfield, putting pressure on the Ravens offensive line and quarterback Joe Flacco. He forced players to run into tackles. He had one mistake late -- an offsides that gave the Ravens a first down -- but otherwise he was the best player on the field when the Texans were on defense.
Early in his career, injuries slowed him down. The “bust” word was being thrown around. But with J.J. Watt lost for the bulk of the season for a second straight year, Clowney has been one of the few bright spots on a defense that has struggled throughout the year.
The reality is the Texans simply suffered too many injuries this season. They lost two of their three best players on defense when Watt and Whitney Mercilus went down. Brian Cushing has missed 10 games because of another PED violation. They then lost one of the most exciting young QBs in football when Deshaun Watson went down.
Of the star players, Clowney and D’Andre Hopkins are the last men standing. Both have been phenomenal and were again Monday night. Both need help. It’s a shame that so many players have been lost. But as strange as it might sound, Clowney might be benefitting from Watt’s absence. The Texans have used Clowney the way they used Watt; lining him up in different places, moving him around, trying to isolate him in positive matchups. The results have been excellent. Unfortunately, the results as a team have not been as good, but that’s not on Clowney.
In a lost season, Clowney has been a rare bright spot.
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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.