THE NERD REPORT
Nerds around town: Sonic, poker raids, comicpalozza and more
May 2, 2019, 7:14 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 Thursday and we're almost through it, if you squint you can basically see the weekend and maybe going to see Avengers again!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
The American Red Cross is a charity that comes to people when they are down and steps in to try and help out. They aren't perfect and there are tons of fair criticisms to be made about these guys, but imagine a world where they don't exist. It's not the world we're trying to make right? Let's help people out. #NerdsUnite
WHY IS IT EVEN BEING MADE?
Sonic the Hedgehog released a trailer and it was horrific. This trailer may be the worst thing I've seen in a little while and I'm honestly confused why is it even a movie? I know everyone thinks every property is a movie now and honestly I thought the Detective Pikachu movie sounded like a horrible idea but the trailer came out and it looked pretty good. Not good enough for me to go see it on my own, maybe if a lady wants to go I'll take a nice nerd lady out to see it, but on my own? Not likely, but it did look good at least. This one though? Sonic looks unwatchable, and here's the weirdest part about all of it, Sonic has been animated in cartoons, video games and other things, we know what Sonic is supposed to look like, they completely redesigned him for this movie. They didn't base it on the old ones, they didn't update or make it modern, they made a brand new looking Sonic. What the heck? Who asked for this? Where was the demand? This movie looks awful.
WTF?
So I guess we're going to continue the trend about talking about if something is legal or not. The police raided a poker room yesterday and took the position that poker rooms are against the law again. Last year people asked the state attorney general if he was going to go after poker rooms and he didn't, now they're getting raided and words like money laundering are getting thrown around. They are saying all kinds of things and obviously this is going to go to trial and get sorted out, in the comments to the news article I saw some people mad at the police chief. That doesn't even make sense, he didn't issue the warrants on this, this is clearly coming down from a state level. Also, in other news the Kraft tapes might be getting suppressed because people were having their privacy violated while they were committing prostitution. Is that relevant? I thought if you are in the process of committing a crime privacy isn't important. I mean it's a weird thing to think a sex crimes unit thought prostitution was going on, got a warrant for that, filmed it occurring and then the judge in a trial says "people were going there with an expectation of privacy" yeah, to commit crimes. That's an odd decision.
COMICPALOOZA
Next weekend is the biggest nerd weekend in all of Houston, Comicpalooza. This year Emilia Clarke is one of the guests and by Sunday night there will only be one episode left of Game of Thrones. I am one of the hosts of Comicpalooza currently booked to host a few panels and who knows what other troubles I'll get into while I'm there but man I am pumped. I love Comicpalooza it's always such a big weekend so many people out there in the world, going and getting their nerd on. It doesn't matter what your fandom is or who you follow or what you're nerdy about it's all there and it's all in good fun. There will be costumes and cosplayers and artists and celebrities all in one place all having a great time. If you've already bought your tickets, check out the website because they're about to start letting people pick up their tickets early. It is a great time to be a nerd.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
So I have many pet peeves, many, many pet peeves. I think I might even be described as a grump. Perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves though is when people don't respond to text messages. Man, everyone has their phone on them these days, everyone checks their phone every ten minutes, so who are we kidding for the sake of my sanity, return my text messages! My little brother is the biggest culprit of it, he'll even talk to me about text messages he didn't return which makes it even worse in my book. That's like a double sin. Anyway, I'm just venting.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Thursday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Friday 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 $.50 from every shirt is donated to a good cause 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 would be kind of funny if Christian Walker simply decided he wanted to check out what the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is all about. “Ow, my left oblique feels kind of sore. How about sending me to Houston for the weekend to get an MRI?” That would be quite a bodacious move, and total bull (props to you if you see what I did there). Of course, faking pain is not the case, and the Astros now cross their fingers that their 60-million dollar free agent signee doesn’t start his Houston tenure on the injured list. It certainly isn’t encouraging to know that Walker missed about 20 percent of last season with a left oblique injury. In 2021 he spent two stints on the IL because of right oblique problems. Obviously the Astros want return on their investment as quickly and as substantially as possible, but they would be fools not to treat this conservatively. Walker turns 34 years old the second day of the regular season. No one should be having night sweats just yet over the possibility that Walker is about to become Jose Abreu 2.0. Abreu was 36 when he debuted with the Astros. However, it is accurate to note that Abreu had a significantly higher WAR in his last season before joining the Astros than did Walker.
If Walker turns out to be sidelined for a month, that would mean the Astros need a first baseman for the first week and a half or so of the regular season. Let the drumbeat for Cam Smith begin! The sample size remains laughably small, but Smith continues to speak softly and swing a very, very big stick. If you’ll accept a .636 batting average as pretty good. It’s only 11 at bats. But yowza! If Walker is to be down into the regular season, and Smith keeps rocketing line drives in the Grapefruit League, the plot thickens. Smith only has 19 at bats above single-A. That’s 19 more than Albert Pujols had when the St. Louis Cardinals decided to have him in their lineup to begin the 2001 season. Albert did fairly well. He’s merely the greatest first baseman in National League history.
The much more conservative approach would be a platoon with Jon Singleton in the lineup against most right-handed pitchers and whoever is not catching between Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini playing against lefties. Zach Dezenzo would be another option. Cam Smith is not an option to play first base, at least not early in 2025. Just in the last few days, he’s started doing some outfield drills because of the possible pathway to the big club in right field that I wrote about last week. Cam Smith is not going to make a huge jump to the big leagues and basically try to learn a new position on the fly there. However, Isaac Paredes owns a first baseman’s glove. Paredes started 13 games at first for the Rays last season. He made 40 starts total at first over the last three seasons, his only big league starts at first, after a grand total of two at first in the minors. Paredes temporarily moving to first would open up third base for Smith. Just sayin’...
What's in a name?
File this more under trivial than trivia, but here goes. When Isaac Paredes takes the field in the season opener, he officially becomes the third Paredes in Astros’ history. Utility man Jimmy Paredes got some run during the franchise deep in the abyss stage from 2010-13. Relief pitcher Enoli Paredes got 32 1/3 innings in over three seasons 2020-22. There have been only six guys named Paredes in MLB history. Come March 27 the Astros will have had half of them.
On the farm
MLB Pipeline this week released its in order ranking of the Astros’ top 30 prospects. Cam Smith is the obvious number one. Brice Matthews is number two. Drafted as a shortstop, Matthews has a better route to the bigs as a second baseman, given the Astros’ weak depth chart there with Jose Altuve becoming primarily a left fielder. Outfielder Jacob Melton is third. Considering the present state of the Astros’ outfield and that Melton turns 25 this September, if worth a darn, he should play his way on to the 26-man roster at some point this year. Catcher Walker Yanek ranks fourth. He was the Astros’ first round pick last July. Dezenzo rounds out the top five.
We’re under three weeks until Opening Day. 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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