NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Crawfish, Mulan and what's next for HBO?

May 20, 2019, 5:45 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!

It's a new week and there's challenges to overcome and opportunities to seize. Don't waste your time and your chances by letting the week slip away.

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

I've found one this week, a beautiful and wonderful charity event. It's an ALL YOU CAN EAT Crawfish boil, that's right! It's the Light of the Phoenix Charity All You Can Eat Crawfish Boil, and also there's a waterslide and bounce house. Boom! Get pumped, $25 if you get your tickets early. $30 at the door, how are you not excited? #NerdsUnite

House Mouse

As Disney continues to remake movie after animated movie into live action versions, and make another large fortune, they're starting to run out of the cool movies like Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast (don't judge, it was a great movie, the fight between Gaston and Beast was awesome) they move on to movies like Mulan. Mulan was a big story, with tons of characters and big set pieces because it's about a war in China. So now it's getting a $300 million dollar budget to be remade, which is a lot of money. I'm curious if China will be excited about this movie coming out and if it will be one of the 27 American films released in China the year it comes out. Which will be key to them making the money they need to make in order for Mulan to be a success. I'm curious how it all turns out.

House Minecraft

The game Minecraft, which you may not know about but your kid probably knows it all to well has sold over 175 million copies over the last ten years. That is an insane amount of copies of a game, now granted there may be some overlap, like someone who has bought it for multiple platforms or devices or accounts, but still, that's a lot of copies. This helps underline just the sheer size of the video game market and world. It's weird to think just how many people have gotten into gaming and how many people have slowly gotten involved in the whole industry to just grow it to this point. The sheer growth of this whole industry is amazing and it is hard to imagine how many people are represented by that number but it's almost immeasurable.

House Box Office

Game of Thrones has ended. No spoilers here directly but the conversation for HBO is what's next? Westworld had a great debut trailer, Watchmen looks like it's going to try and do something interesting, and the new His Dark Matters which I think is a Golden Compass based property are all coming up. Are they enough to keep people entertained and attached to a $15 dollar a month subscription for a bunch of not as great as Game of Thrones shows? I don't know, and honestly I don't think anyone else does either. I bet there's a bunch of very nervous suit wearing executives who are going to have their eyes on the numbers for the next month or two, waiting to see which way the numbers go. If I were a betting man, I would bet strongly that the numbers take a dip, somewhere in the realm of less than 20% but more than 10% because I think for every ten people I know at least one will cancel their HBO but I don't think it'll be up to that one in five range. I don't see a mass exodus but I bet in the next investor call for whomever owns HBO someone utters the phrase, "post Game of Thrones numbers are shaky."

Not That You Asked

This weekend is the retailer summit at in Vegas for the comic book world. For those who don't know the simple version is this, all the comic book companies are doing their own thing, there's only one national distributor and no one likes working with them and the reality is the shops suffer for all this craziness. So this annual event is a big deal because the publishers, the distributor and the shop owners are all in one place all talking at the same time and changing nothing. But cool stories always leak out of this event, so that's a plus.

I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Monday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Tuesday 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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EVERY-THING SPORTS

If this thing goes sideways, here's what the Astros are facing

Life after Correa may not be the worst thing. Composite image by Jack Brame.

Carlos Correa is having a damn good year. The Astros shortstop is hitting .285 with 24 homers, 87 RBI, 72 walks, .862 OPS, a 7.2 WAR, and a .981 fielding percentage. In any other year, those would be numbers worthy of being in the mix for AL MVP (if it weren't for that dastardly Shohei Otani). Correa is also in a contract year. He and the Astros were far enough apart that the season started and he's held true to not wanting to negotiate midseason.

The offers of six years for $120 million and five years for $125 million were both rejected by he and his camp. They're seeking something much longer and for more money on the annual average. With the team unwilling to meet those demands, it seems as if the team and the player are headed for a split.

Lots of Astros fans are not happy with the prospect of Correa leaving via free agency. Some think the team isn't doing enough and should pony up to bring him back. Some feel Correa should take what they're offering because it's a fair deal that'll allow the team to sign other players. Then, there's that small band of us that are totally okay with him leaving.

One of the main reasons I'm okay with him leaving is the players the team still has under control that are potential replacements. Aledmys Diaz and Pedro Leon are the first two guys that come to mind. Diaz is a 31-year-old vet who's stepped up when he's called upon. He can slide over to third and allow Alex Bregman to play shortstop. Leon is the team's 23-year-old hot prospect who signed as an outfielder that the team has been trying to turn into a shortstop. If Correa were to leave, he could instantly plug the hole Carlos would leave behind. Either of those options lead to my next point of being okay with Correa leaving which is to...

...allocate that money elsewhere. Whether it's signing a replacement (at short or third), or boosting the pitching staff, I'll be fine as long as it's money well spent. Signing a shortstop or third baseman would determine where Bregman would be playing. If said player takes significantly less than Correa and fills 70-80% of his offensive shoes, it'll be worth it. Others will have to step it up. If they find a deal on a top of the rotation starting pitcher, that would be ideal as well. As I stated a couple of weeks ago, this team has employed a six-man rotation, but doesn't have a true ace. Spending anywhere from $20-30 million a year on a top-notch pitcher to add to the staff would bolster this staff in more ways than one. It'll finally give them the ace they lack, plus it'll bump all the young talent (still under team control) down a peg creating depth and perhaps even creating bullpen depth.

The only way any of this works is if Correa isn't back. Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander's money comes off the books also. Freeing up that much payroll and not re-appropriating those resources to ensure this team stays in contention would be a first degree felony in sports court. I don't think Jim Crane wants that for this team. I for sure don't think James Click wants that as his legacy. Let's sit back and watch how the organization maneuvers this offseason and pray they get it right.

Editor's note: If you want to read the other side of the argument, check out Ken Hoffman's piece from Tuesday.

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