NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Rain, terrible NFL and Batman Day
Sep 20, 2019, 7:49 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!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
I had been talking about a walk to fight melanoma called Steps For Melanoma Walk, but given the weather the last few days, the more important thing in the near immediate future is to focus on your friends and neighbors and local charities. Make sure everyone is dry and fed and warm this weekend.
WATER WOES
So when are we going to have the very honest conversation about the climate? I don't know a way to beat around the bush on this anymore, Houston is flooding regularly now. We've over-developed all of our drainage and water absorption away to the point that now we retain water all the time. On top of poor planning that is decades in the works (so we can't/won't blame any one party for it, it's us, Houston has been ignoring water run offs forever) the storms are getting larger and more powerful and more devastating in ways that are hard to even fathom. Over fourteen years ago our fun neighbors to the east, New Orleans, suffered their own catastrophic flooding and we were able to help them but we complained about taking on the residents and what our city "turned" into, all while ignoring the real lessons. Cities have to be able to handle the storms, and yet, 14 years later we're flooding and looking to Washington for help like it's their job to bail out our inability to learn a lesson. We complained about Louisiana's inability to properly handle their funds and infrastructure and yet, here we are, swimming for our lives.
BAD NFL
There are some dramatically bad teams in the NFL right now and the Titans and the Jaguars are two of those awful teams and this game last night was some bad football. Also on a side note, I have Fournette on my fantasy team and he lets himself get tackled 9 yards out after a terrible game?! C'mon man! Also it says a lot about Nike and the helmet company that they both dropped Antonio Brown the Patriots haven't and the NFL hasn't benched him. The fact that he didn't pay this girl $2 million dollars to settle confidentially may have been right ethically for him (I have no knowledge of facts in this case, simply speaking hypothetically) but it clearly was a poor business decision and sometimes these guys need better advice. I talk about good advice all the time and this guy is clearly in need of it.
DRAMA IN THE INDUSTRY
It's rare when a story is just full of awful people all around but the feud between Rob Liefeld and Terrific Production LLC fits that bill for me. Rob Liefeld has long been the Rockstar or the upstart of the comic book industry, regularly finding himself in the center of the several of the big dramatic moments in the comic book industry's history. Some great like the founding of Image Comics, which changed comic books for the better, to feuding with creators to being the guy who had his own Levi jean's commercial (true story). He was cashing million dollar checks as 19 year old comic creator and now has lost the rights to one of his biggest creations through poor decision making. The guy who has it has started up Terrific Production LLC and he seems like an absolute looney tune. He has done literally everything in the most inefficient and unproductive ways, insulting creators and seeming to know nothing about the climate of current comic books. It's been fun to watch.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
Come hang out with me tomorrow afternoon at The Adventure Begins for Batman Day. It's going to be awesome! There will be a flippin' Batmobile there. Seriously.
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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Counting up "should win" and "should lose" results is routinely a fool's errand. That said, the Astros enter a stretch which features a bunch of "should win" games. On one hand, beginning this weekend at Daikin Park, the Astros run a gauntlet of 10 games in 10 days, then after an off day, they play another 13 days in a row. On the other hand, over the first 17 games of the 23 in 24 days, the Astros play 14 of them against losing teams: seven vs. the American League East cellar-dwelling Baltimore Orioles, three vs. the utter joke Colorado Rockies, and four vs. the not awful but below .500 Los Angeles Angels. Additionally, the Astros get 10 of those 14 games at home.
The only good team they face until after Labor Day is Detroit, with three games at the Tigers next week. That series looms large. If the Astros are successful in fending off Seattle and yet again winning the American League West, they have a real shot of finishing even with or ahead of Toronto and Detroit. Finishing with the best record in the AL is the ideal, but having the second -best record among the division winners means a bye past the high peril best-of-three first round series. The Astros' 2024 postseason was over in an eyeblink because they had the third-best record of the AL division champs, and then had the Tigers dismiss them in two games.
If the Astros can take two of three in Motown next week, they not only gain ground on the Tigers, but clinch the season series (Astros beat the Tigers two of three in Houston back in April) and with it the tiebreaker should that come into play for playoff seeding. The Astros swept the Blue Jays three straight earlier this year, so winning just one of three games in Canada next month would secure that tiebreaker.
Growing pains
Big picture, it's been a fine rookie season for Cam Smith. Nothing special, but plenty acceptable for a guy with just 32 games of minor league experience before earning/being handed the primary right field job coming out of spring training. Smith's tools and athleticism are clear, so are a couple of holes in his game that need patching if he is to develop into a star. The standards are different for a rookie making the minimum MLB salary of 760-thousand dollars versus a big ticket free agent signing making 20 million dollars, but a higher percentage of Smith's official at bats have ended with strikeouts this season than have Christian Walker's.
Along with improving his rate of contact, Smith needs to tweak his swing path to hit the ball in the air more. With his strength Cam can hit it hard. But hard grounders aren't the objective. Cam has a pair of two-home run games this season. In late June he homered in back-to-back games. In the other 100 games Smith has played, he has just one other homer. One in 100 games. His last dinger was June 28. 138 at bats later he's still sitting on seven for the season. Mauricio Dubon and Taylor Trammell have higher slugging percentages, as did Zack Short in his limited time with the team.
Smith has been feeble since just before the All-Star break, posting a paltry 13 hits in his last 90 at bats for a .144 batting average. He figures to play less down the stretch, a lot less should Yordan Alvarez actually return to the lineup. If ever back, Alvarez figures to slot only as the designated hitter, reducing Jose Altuve's DH opportunities. When Altuve plays left field, Jesus Sanchez is the clear better option to play right against righthanded pitching.
Jose Altuve at his best
Credit to manager Joe Espada for realizing that Altuve at 35 years old needed his load lightened. Should have happened last year, but live and learn. Altuve has been the DH 35 times this season (just five times last year). It is highly likely not a coincidence that after a hot start last year, Altuve was mediocre the last three-quarters of 2024 with a .740 OPS over his final 119 games. This season Altuve started atrociously. He was a straight up lousy player into late-May, waking May 22 with his batting average .238 and his OPS a woeful .629 over 47 games played. In 70 games since: .316/.947. In his 2017 AL Most Valuable Player season Altuve finished with a .957 OPS.
Astros HOF weekend
The Astros retire Hall of Famer Billy Wagner's number 13 Saturday. 12 players wore 13 after Wagner's time in Houston ended. They do not exactly comprise a Who's Who of Astros lore. Tyler White may have been the best of the dozen. Hey, I said the pickings were slim! Cooper Hummel goes down as the last to wear 13 as an Astro in an official game. Hummel wore 13 last season, before being assigned number 16 when he rejoined the team this season.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me 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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