THE NERD REPORT
Nerds around town: Comicpalooza week, Disney news and the floods are back
May 8, 2019, 6:47 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, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Hey Nerds!
Hump Day! That's right, bust out the booty pics, the bad jokes about camels and embrace the week, cause it's halfway over. Wednesday!!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
Cancer sucks, we all know that. We all know someone dealing with and fighting against cancer and we all know the toll it can take on them and the effect it can have on their life both physically and financially. Cancer is a hard and expensive disease to fight and because of that Crits for Cancer is uniting nerds to help fight it. Let's all take a second, click here and let's work together to fight cancer. Some proceeds from that shirt go directly to Crits to help them in their battle against the big C. #NerdsUnite
COMICPALOOZA WEEK!
If you aren't going to Comicpalooza you are missing so many awesome and amazing things, including the college eSports championships. They will be having the championships at Comicpalooza this year for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Starcraft 2 and Street Fighter V, so get excited. Also they'll be having tournaments going on for people to compete in so that's nice, I'm registered in an NBA 2k tournament on Friday and my little brother is booked in a Super Smash Bros tournament as well, I'm going for the fun and the chip, you know what I'm saying? Seriously, how could someone not be super excited about Comicpalooza? Come get your nerd on with everyone else in Houston this weekend!!
RESPECT THE MOUSE!
Big news coming out of yesterday's Disney Movie Studio plans. They announced their plans with the last bit of Fox movies and then moved over to new business so to speak, New Mutants has pushed back again to early 2020 now, this poor movie has all kinds of people in it including Arya Stark herself as Wolfsbane and yet… no one will see this movie for a long time. Also Disney canceled the long planned but never really happening Gambit movie with Channing Tatum attached, basically he wanted to do what Ryan Reynolds did with Deadpool for Gambit, except no one else wanted that. They also made some HUGE announcements, including 8 new Marvel Film Dates and 5 new Star Wars dates and they pushed Avatar back a year. Disney is in the business now.
THE BATWOMAN
If you're a CW Arrowverse nerd you already know that they have announced that this will be the final season of Arrow. With Legends of Tomorrow always seeming to be on the edge of being cancelled or picked up, this at first seemed like a bad omen for those fans because maybe it meant that these shows had run their course on CW and perhaps as an independent universe away from the DC Streaming service. But now with the announcement of a Batwoman season staring Ruby Rose, the fans can relax. It's looking like next year the line up will be Black Lightning, Supergirl, Flash, Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow, that's pretty exciting. While I'm not a huge fan of the shows overall, I don't like the tone and the 90210 feel of the various shows, I totally dig that this whole cohesive universe exists and these characters interact and crossover and have a great cohesive world to play in. That's a very cool part of it because it's the thing that made comics cool way back in the day and I'm glad to see comic book shows embrace it as well.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
On a personal note, yesterday during those ridiculous rains, my entire street flooded in less than two hours of rain fall in the middle of the day, and my car had water seep in. This is such a pain in the ass, seriously, now I am going through the process of drying everything out and dealing with that, it's not fun. Plus I feel like you never get it all the way clean again, I dunno, it's just one of those annoying things where you have no one to blame and there isn't anything to do but go out there and just get it taken care of. I think I like it more when there's someone to yell at.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Wednesday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Thursday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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Texans HC DeMeco Ryans reveals what he values most at scouting combine
Feb 28, 2025, 3:51 pm
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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