NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Texans, New York Comic Con and funny commercials
Oct 7, 2019, 7:35 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
This week Nerd Thug Radio sets up our plans for Extra Life which will be November 2nd. Donations will be going towards the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals as they have every year. This thing is awesome, basically on November 2nd we'll be gaming all day. ALL DAY. And then we collect donations and bring awareness and blah blah blah. Here's what's important, the Children's Miracle Network is awesome and the money goes into local branches so LITERALLY the money you donate could SAVE YOUR CHILD. That's the stuff I'm talking about.
GOOD SPORTS WEEKEND TO THE WORLD
The Astros are winning in the playoffs, the Texans won against a suddenly alive Falcon's offense, the Rockets season is about to begin and the Cowboys lost. This is the kind of sports weekend I like talking about, good news all around is the kind of news I want to have, and hell yes I like when the Cowboys lose. But honestly, Texans, clean up the return game, we got lucky that the referees don't know the rules either but at some point mistakes will burn us.
NEW YORK COMIC CON
I've been to it before, it's awesome. This is the one where all the creators go to, where all the news comes out of and all the fun stuff gets announced. This year I want to start getting out to all the various events and meeting more people, that's the next step for me as a writer. The industry is tight knit and it's hard to break in although once you break in, you are in until you suck. Anyway this is where the big time happens and tons of cool stuff was announced, and Birds of Prey were there hanging out. They announced a new Wolverine book with Kubert on it, which is one of the guys who needs to be drawing Wolverine or the x Men all the time. I'm pumped for everything to start coming out.
GOOD ADS
Tide and Head and Shoulders have been making some good ads lately. Peyton Manning is the perfect football pitch man and Patrick Mahone's (weird voice and everything) has made some great commercials himself. The one between him and Troy Polamalu is great, they added to it this week with them disagreeing on tons of words and then there's a great bit with the wind blowing their hair back and I won't ruin it, but it's worth seeing.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
DC has released a timeline of its comic book history and honestly this is always a mistake. Always. Lining up how long ago something is or was on paper suddenly makes things look wrong. For example now by one creator's estimate World War 2 was in the mid-1960s… oops. This doesn't make any sense at all and this is exactly why you don't put these things down on paper.
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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Texans HC DeMeco Ryans reveals what he values most at scouting combine
Feb 28, 2025, 3:51 pm
Now that spring training is officially underway, we're able to make some observations about how the Astros 2025 roster is taking shape.
Houston's starting rotation is basically set, but we got to see Hayden Wesneski make his first start in an Astro uniform. Wesneski pitched two innings against the Mets on Tuesday, allowing one run with three strikeouts.
He's working on a curveball that's a new pitch for his repertoire, and he saw some success with it. Hopefully, adding this pitch will help keep batters off balance (especially left-handed hitters) and help elevate his game. Which is nothing new for the Astros, who have a history of helping pitchers get to the next level.
Forrest Whitley also looked good, pitching a clean inning and finishing off his final hitter with a 97 mph fastball. Whitley finally realizing his potential in the big leagues could be a huge deal for the Astros, as they're looking to lighten the workload for Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader this season.
Hader in particular could benefit from this adjustment, as he was much worse when pitching in non-save situations last season. An easy fix with Hader could be trying to limit his workload to mostly save situations. That way, you get the most out of him and achieve the goal of him pitching less innings this year.
The Houston Chronicle's Matt Kawahara wrote about Hader's struggles pitching when games were tied or Houston was trailing.
“Hader converted 34 of 38 save chances but faced more batters in non-save situations (142) than in save situations (136), a sharp pivot from his previous few seasons. Opponents slugged .271 against him in save situations and .411 in non-save situations, while his ERA was more than two runs higher (4.98) in the latter.”
And while it's easy to say “suck it up, you're getting paid a fortune to pitch,” if he's not having success in those situations, and you're looking to back off his workload, this seems like an obvious way to pivot. He's under contract for another four seasons, so the Astros are right to want to be careful with him.
Astros plate discipline
Manager Joe Espada has made it very clear that he would like his offense to see more pitches this season. And we're seeing a stark difference in the approaches from the newly acquired players (Isaac Paredes, Christian Walker) and Houston's returning hitters.
Keep in mind, Paredes was first in pitches per plate appearance last season, and Walker was 10th.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Paredes and Walker both worked a full count in their first at-bats on Tuesday, while Mauricio Dubon, Yainer Diaz, and Chas McCormick swung at every pitch in their first at-bats.
Hopefully the new blood in the clubhouse will rub off on the rest of the Astros lineup, which is full of free swingers, especially with Alex Bregman now playing for Boston.
Which is why we're so excited about Cam Smith's early results. While we're super pumped about his two home runs on Tuesday, we're equally impressed that he walked in his first two at-bats this spring. If anyone would naturally be jumping out of their shoes to make a strong first impression, you would think it's the guy that was traded for Kyle Tucker. But Smith was patient, and he was rewarded for it.
What is Dana Brown saying privately?
Just last offseason, Brown was talking about extending Tucker and Bregman while also signing Hader to a shocking 5-year, $95 million deal. Plus, the team signed Jose Altuve to a whopping $150 million extension. Fast-forward one year and Tucker has been traded, Bregman left in free agency, and Ryan Pressly was dealt in a salary dump. Safe to say, his vision for the ball club has changed drastically in one season. Welcome to baseball economics under Jim Crane!
We're just scratching the surface on everything covered in the video above. Be sure to hit play to watch the full conversation!
The countdown to Opening Day is on. 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. Click here to catch!
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