NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Andrew Luck, the Dallas Cowboys and MCU news
Aug 14, 2019, 6:33 am
NERDS AROUND TOWN
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?
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.
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…
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 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.
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.
Now that spring training is officially underway, we're able to make some observations about how the Astros 2025 roster is taking shape.
Houston's starting rotation is basically set, but we got to see Hayden Wesneski make his first start in an Astro uniform. Wesneski pitched two innings against the Mets on Tuesday, allowing one run with three strikeouts.
He's working on a curveball that's a new pitch for his repertoire, and he saw some success with it. Hopefully, adding this pitch will help keep batters off balance (especially left-handed hitters) and help elevate his game. Which is nothing new for the Astros, who have a history of helping pitchers get to the next level.
Forrest Whitley also looked good, pitching a clean inning and finishing off his final hitter with a 97 mph fastball. Whitley finally realizing his potential in the big leagues could be a huge deal for the Astros, as they're looking to lighten the workload for Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader this season.
Hader in particular could benefit from this adjustment, as he was much worse when pitching in non-save situations last season. An easy fix with Hader could be trying to limit his workload to mostly save situations. That way, you get the most out of him and achieve the goal of him pitching less innings this year.
The Houston Chronicle's Matt Kawahara wrote about Hader's struggles pitching when games were tied or Houston was trailing.
“Hader converted 34 of 38 save chances but faced more batters in non-save situations (142) than in save situations (136), a sharp pivot from his previous few seasons. Opponents slugged .271 against him in save situations and .411 in non-save situations, while his ERA was more than two runs higher (4.98) in the latter.”
And while it's easy to say “suck it up, you're getting paid a fortune to pitch,” if he's not having success in those situations, and you're looking to back off his workload, this seems like an obvious way to pivot. He's under contract for another four seasons, so the Astros are right to want to be careful with him.
Astros plate discipline
Manager Joe Espada has made it very clear that he would like his offense to see more pitches this season. And we're seeing a stark difference in the approaches from the newly acquired players (Isaac Paredes, Christian Walker) and Houston's returning hitters.
Keep in mind, Paredes was first in pitches per plate appearance last season, and Walker was 10th.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Paredes and Walker both worked a full count in their first at-bats on Tuesday, while Mauricio Dubon, Yainer Diaz, and Chas McCormick swung at every pitch in their first at-bats.
Hopefully the new blood in the clubhouse will rub off on the rest of the Astros lineup, which is full of free swingers, especially with Alex Bregman now playing for Boston.
Which is why we're so excited about Cam Smith's early results. While we're super pumped about his two home runs on Tuesday, we're equally impressed that he walked in his first two at-bats this spring. If anyone would naturally be jumping out of their shoes to make a strong first impression, you would think it's the guy that was traded for Kyle Tucker. But Smith was patient, and he was rewarded for it.
What is Dana Brown saying privately?
Just last offseason, Brown was talking about extending Tucker and Bregman while also signing Hader to a shocking 5-year, $95 million deal. Plus, the team signed Jose Altuve to a whopping $150 million extension. Fast-forward one year and Tucker has been traded, Bregman left in free agency, and Ryan Pressly was dealt in a salary dump. Safe to say, his vision for the ball club has changed drastically in one season. Welcome to baseball economics under Jim Crane!
We're just scratching the surface on everything covered in the video above. Be sure to hit play to watch the full conversation!
The countdown to Opening Day is on. Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo 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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