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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It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
We have so much more to discuss. Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
The MLB season is finally upon us! 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!
*ChatGPT assisted.
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