NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Ninja, DC Comics and pre-season Texans
Aug 12, 2019, 6:48 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!
Let's kick this week's ass!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
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.
CONTENT WARS SPILL OVER
So I've often discussed streaming wars on Nerd Thug Radio and here in this column, but now we're seeing the next phase of all this, content wars. Ninja of Twitch streaming fame has jumped ship to a competitor, Mixer. Mixer, the Microsoft owned streaming option, probably paid a mountain of money to move Ninja over, it's been reported recently he was paid a million dollars cash to stream Apex Legends when it came out for the first month or so, so getting him to move streams would be a pricey prospect. Twitch has handled the defection rather poorly, instead of just showing old streams of Ninja's and simply stating that he's left the service as is their usual, they instead posted other streams they wanted to promote on his page, using his fame for their advantage. Not exactly classy.
DIGITAL WOES
DC Comics digital sales have been flat and aren't exactly good, according to Jim Lee. Their digital app does give away most of the DC Comics library as part of its package so I imagine that's taking a pretty good bite out of the sales. You can't sell something and offer it freely to the same consumer base and then expect sales to perform at all, it isn't practical. DC has to be aware of that, the real question is, how are the creators being compensated for the fact that their work is being given away instead of sold for royalty producing revenue? These are the real questions that I would be asking if I worked at DC Comics.
PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL
We just wrapped up week one of preseason football and there wasn't a lot of news making stuff except Antonio Brown is an even bigger crazy person than we thought and The Texans did not in fact improve their offensive line woes. There's an amazing gif going around from all the Houston Sportswriters where both the right tackle and the running back miss completely on two blocks letting two defenders run untouched on the Quarterback's blind side. It's an excellent sign for this season, truly.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
House of X and Powers of X is chugging along on schedule but there's already controversy. There's a HUGE moment in House of X #2 that I don't want to ruin or reveal here, I think it's worth reading, however it comes with controversy. The writer, Hickman, made a quote awhile back alluding to a book he had read that he was enjoying. The problem with this quote is that it parallels the idea in House of X #2 he wrote years later. The idea isn't exclusive to only these two places but it's similar enough in style and tone that it feels like a rip off or a homage and it got a lot of people intrigued including the writer of the inspiring work. My personal position is that there is a lot of borrowing and idea bleeding that happens in pop culture and creating, and when it happens that the idea becomes dangerously close I think honesty and apology is the right course of action.
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.
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With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.
While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.
Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.
And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.
It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.
Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.
The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.
They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.
Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.
Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?
As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.
The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?
Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!
Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan. We drop two episodes every week on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel. You can also listen on Apple Podcast, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.