NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Lame superheroes, new video games and Hybrids
Aug 1, 2019, 6:56 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!
Hey Nerds! It's August! Let's start this month strong!!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
Make sure to get over to The West Bar and Grill on August 4th. They are supporting 13yr old Kobee Cohen, who having previously defeated Rhabdomayosarcoma recently suffered a return of the disease and now it is in his brain. Looking towards hospice care, the family needs financial aid and support during this difficult time. There will be a raffle and donations for the raffle are still being accepted, everyone is welcome to attend and I'm encouraging them to do so!
SOME INDIEGOGO LOVE
So as I've entered the world of Indy comic creators, I've come across a lot of cool projects and one worth discussing is Luke Stone's Hybrids. Right now he's crowdfunding the third issue on Indiegogo and could use some love, so check him out. It's a cool series with some spectacular art, and some really interesting characters. I particularly love the big guy they call Trashman, I love the codename, because he takes out the trash, get it? There are some cool characters and they conversation is believable, it flows nicely, this is a good team book worth picking up. Hybrids #3 is being crowdfunded right now!!
MEMORIES
So one of my favorite nerd websites did a thing about the worst X Men ever and nearly all of them come from the era where I was reading comic books, Maggot, Marrow, Joseph, Nate Grey and Adam X in particular. These were just absolutely terrible characters to be fair, but they were the characters in the comic book as I was in my teenage years and these were the characters that I remember as being part of this really cool X Men line up. Now fast forward 15ish years and honestly, yes they are all terrible characters but they were awesome back then, I swear! It's funny how awful our tastes used to be and how we only remember them as these great things.
NEW GAME SEASON
We're coming up on the 2k20 round of games over the next two months and while I'm always excited about this time, I'm also a little uneasy about this time. Usually you're just getting the games for the updated rosters, you're not even getting that many new or great features, which is disappointing. I hope they make enough changes year to year to justify buying a new game every year but the truth is, they probably didn't. Not only didn't they make enough changes, they probably also weren't able to fix all the bugs in the game, as every year you find some weird glitch that screws up the great team you were building. One year in Madden it was having too many created players, another year in NBA 2K it was having contracts that decreased in value over time and in 2K18 it was having too many overseas players held on your roster, all of these would crash your season and ruin your night.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
When I don't sleep well I develop a cough that takes me forever to get rid of and I have it right now and it drives me freaking crazy. I hate this damn cough more than anything I ever see or deal with health wise. It takes literally two or three weeks to get totally over this cough and it's so aggravating. Anyway, I'm done complaining, I have to go cough.
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.
What looked like a minor blip after an emotional series win in Los Angeles has turned into something more concerning for the Houston Astros.
Swept at home by a Guardians team that came in riding a 10-game losing streak, the Astros were left looking exposed. Not exhausted, as injuries, underperformance, and questionable decision-making converged to hand Houston one of its most frustrating series losses of the year.
Depth finally runs dry
It would be easy to point to a “Dodger hangover” as the culprit, the emotional peak of an 18-1 win at Chavez Ravine followed by a mental lull. But that’s not the story here.
Houston’s energy was still evident, especially in the first two games of the series, where the offense scored five or more runs each time. Including those, the Astros had reached that mark in eight of their last 10 games heading into Wednesday’s finale.
But scoring isn’t everything, not when a lineup held together by duct tape and desperation is missing Christian Walker and Jake Meyers and getting critical at-bats from Cooper Hummel, Zack Short, and other journeymen.
The lack of depth finally showed. The Astros, for three days, looked more like a Triple-A squad with Jose Altuve and a couple big-league regulars sprinkled in.
Cracks in the pitching core
And the thing that had been keeping this team afloat, elite pitching, finally buckled.
Hunter Brown and Josh Hader, both dominant all season, finally cracked. Brown gave up six runs in six innings, raising his pristine 1.82 ERA to 2.21. Hader wasn’t spared either, coughing up a game-losing grand slam in extra innings that inflated his ERA from 1.80 to 2.38 in one night.
But the struggles weren’t isolated. Bennett Sousa, Kaleb Ort, and Steven Okert each gave up runs at critical moments. The bullpen’s collective fade could not have come at a worse time for a team already walking a tightrope.
Injury handling under fire
Houston’s injury management is also drawing heat, and rightfully so. Jake Meyers, who had been nursing a calf strain, started Wednesday’s finale. He didn’t even make it through one pitch before aggravating the injury and needing to be helped off the field.
No imaging before playing him. No cautionary rest despite the All-Star break looming. Just a rushed return in a banged-up lineup, and it backfired immediately.
Second-guessing has turned to outright criticism of the Astros’ medical staff, as fans and analysts alike wonder whether these mounting injuries are being made worse by how the club is handling them.
Pressure mounts on Dana Brown
All eyes now turn to Astros GM Dana Brown. The Astros are limping into the break with no clear reinforcements on the immediate horizon. Only Chas McCormick is currently rehabbing in Sugar Land. Everyone else? Still sidelined.
Brown will need to act — and soon.
At a minimum, calling up top prospect Brice Matthews makes sense. He’s been mashing in Triple-A (.283/.400/.476, 10 HR, .876 OPS) and could play second base while Jose Altuve shifts to left field more regularly. With Mauricio Dubón stretched thin between shortstop and center, injecting Matthews’ upside into the infield is a logical step.
*Editor's note: The Astros must be listening, Matthews was called up Thursday afternoon!
The Astros are calling up Brice Matthews, their top prospect on @MLBPipeline
via @brianmctaggart pic.twitter.com/K91cGKkcx6
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 10, 2025
There’s also trade chatter, most notably about Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins, but excitement has been tepid. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but compared to who the Astros are fielding now, Mullins would be a clear upgrade and a much-needed big-league presence.
A final test before the break
Before the All-Star reset, Houston gets one last chance to stabilize the ship, and it comes in the form of a rivalry series against the Texas Rangers. The Astros will send their top trio — Lance McCullers Jr., Framber Valdez, and Hunter Brown — to the mound for a three-game set that will test their resolve, their health, and perhaps their postseason aspirations.
The Silver Boot is up for grabs. So is momentum. And maybe, clarity on just how far this version of the Astros can go.
There's 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.
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*ChatGPT assisted.
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