NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Andrew Luck, the Dallas Cowboys and MCU news
Aug 14, 2019, 6:33 am
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
We're halfway through it, are you where you want to be this week?
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
Last week while talking about the Gulf Coast Blood Center, the good people reached out to me and pointed me to another awesome thing they're doing so I thought I'd bring it to your attention now. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is working with Team Liquid through the year and eligible people can win an Alienware Aurora Computer valued at $800. The campaign is called Heal For Real, and I like it. Get involved today.
PRETTY IMPRESSIVE
The MCU and Samuel L Jackson did something really impressive this year. Between Captain Marvel, Endgame and Spider Man: Far from Home, they passed $5 billion dollars in one year for one franchise. Spidey breaking a billion is even more important for the future of the MCU because Tom Holland's contract and the Spider-Man agreement were structured for three Marvel movies (Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame) and three Spidey movies, but the sixth Spidey movie only gets made if the Far From Home film broke a billion, which it now has. Technically Sony gets the Spidey money so Disney can't cheer too loudly however, Samuel L Jackson can crow as loudly as he'd like because he was in all three films, which is an even more impressive run. He was in three movies that totaled $5 billion dollars at the box office in one year. Now that's one bad man…
DALLAS WOES
The Dallas Cowboys are dangerously close to either being a pretty good team for a long time or starting over in two years. Amari Cooper, Dax Prescott and Zeke Elliot all have two seasons left before they are free agents or one of them is tag eligible. News broke yesterday that Dax was allegedly asking for $40 million a season, the spin was then spun that he's actually asking for between $33 and $35 million, which is still WAY too high for him. Allegedly, Jones has made offers to all three that makes them top 5 in pay at each of their positions, which is already too high for any of them. They all need each other to work and even then they aren't Conference Champion good with all three of them at this point, but maybe there's a chance if all three stay together. Zeke is in Mexico, Dax wants too much money, and Cooper to his credit has remained silent in all of this but Jones is hesitant to pay these guys the record-breaking money it sounds like they are all asking for. So where does Dallas go from here is they either lose all three or keep all three. It would be a mess if they re-sign Cooper but lose the other two.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF ANDREW LUCK
The Colts have just proven that you can take a great, once a decade type quarterback and in just six short seasons ruin him. They now have no clue what is going on with his body and he will probably be a week to week or month to month kind of guy every season until he just can't take it anymore. He either has an odd bone spur/growth in his lower leg near the ankle or a calf injury that is causing issues with his high ankle. They aren't sure. Considering he's already missed one whole season for a shoulder issue that essentially forced him to start over from scratch building up his arm strength and throwing again and he's now right in the middle of a five year, $140 million contract, The Colts can't get this wrong and need to take extra special care of the only good thing in their entire organization.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
The Youngblood drama just hasn't stopped. Terrific Productions, the company with control of the Youngblood property has been invading Twitter and just acting like a child with a remote control, just all over the place. He's publicly making offers and asking people to track down Alan Moore, retired comics legend, and that no demand is too crazy to entertain. He's tweeting big time writers at Marvel and DC and offering to help them develop at his new company and he's openly courting disaster by saying he believes he can get to a million copies in sales. This is starting well.
Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.
While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.
Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.
And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.
It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.
Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.
The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.
They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.
Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.
Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?
As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.
The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?
Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!
Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan. We drop two episodes every week on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel. You can also listen on Apple Podcast, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.