NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: The Clowney Saga continues, more Spidey drama and extreme yoga
Aug 30, 2019, 6:31 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!
I hope this week went as well as you wanted it to, if not get 'em next week!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
In honor of college kids going back to school, I want you to look on facebook find one of your teacher friends and click on their Amazon wishlist. They're all doing it this year, they all should be doing it this year except that education is the most important thing in the world for children and we as a society should care more to educate them, poor or rich, white, black or brown. We should be teaching them how to think and ask questions and let them make this world a better place since obviously we don't know how.
TEXANS BAD, DOLPHINS BAD
To continue the Clowney drama we touched on yesterday, the Miami Dolphins have apparently made everything worse. We've been in talks to trade Clowney to them and we apparently are insisting on OT Laremy Tunsil, which according to players on the Dolphins will cause a revolt. The Dolphins have a rookie head coach and it sounds like he might not have total control of this franchise yet and honestly there's no clear answer on what that means exactly but you don't want to hear that if you're a coach. Football is the ultimate team sport to borrow every sport cliché, and the reality is it does require 100% buy in from the players. So if they're not behind the coach or if they're doubting the organization, there's no chance for this season.
HAVING A BAD DAY
Apparently, in Mexico an Instagram influencer was doing yoga on a patio balcony six stories up and then fell. She survived but they say her knees and ankles will need to be restructured and that it'll take over three years to get back 100%. Having dealt with my own personal crazy leg injury, I'll tell you this, there is no worse experience than a long, hard rehab where you can only do a few hours of work a day and then you're stuck the rest of the day in bed. Time becomes the enemy and there is no way to make it go faster. I'm not going to be overly mean, it was a dumb thing to do, people are doing dumb things for attention all the time but honestly there's nothing I can say that's worse than what she's dealing with. Also, lots of people die every year taking selfies, like an embarrassingly high number… maybe we should start putting the phones down?
WEB OF SPIDER MAN
Word broke yesterday that Tom Holland filmed a scene in the movie Venom but Marvel flipped their lid and demanded it be deleted. This adds another layer to the whole Disney-Sony feud to me, it starts to paint the level of control that Marvel wanted to exercise over Spider-man. They may be right and they may not be, it's tough to know until we see the scene and find out what was in it. Was it bad? Was it good? Was it a mess? There's literally no way to know but it does start to paint Marvel in a bad light.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
My fantasy football draft is this weekend, this is where championships happen boys. Step one is drafting like a champion. We got this!!
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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Winning consecutive series over last place teams does not mean all is well again in Astroworld, but taking five of seven games from the Orioles and Rockies stopped the bleeding which saw the Astros stumble through an awful 14-23 stretch. The regular season is now in its final month, the Astros are in the middle of three different playoff races. The high-end goal is finishing with one of the two best records in the American League to secure a bye past the two out of three lightning round Major League Baseball calls the Wild Card Series. Entering the holiday weekend the Astros sit four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, three and a half back of the Detroit Tigers. If the Astros can’t overtake either the Jays or Tigers, they at least want to hold off Seattle to win the American League West. Winning the division for an eighth consecutive full season would be its own accomplishment, for the postseason it would at least assure the Astros of homefield advantage in a best-of-three. The race the Astros hope to need to pay little attention to is holding off Kansas City for the final wild card spot. That would be necessary should the Astros lose out on the division title to the Mariners, and finish behind both the second and third place finishers in the AL East in the wild card race, presently the Red Sox and Yankees. The M’s, Bosox, and Yanks all finishing ahead of the Astros is a clear possibility. The good news on that front is the Astros holding a five game lead over the Royals with 28 games to go, though Kansas City does win the tiebreaker should it come to that. The Astros have a significantly easier closing schedule than do the Royals. The Astros have just six games left against teams that would currently qualify for the postseason. The Royals have 12. So to miss the playoffs entirely the Astros basically have to fold, and/or the Royals need to play four weeks of spectacular baseball.
Yordan Alvarez’s looooong awaited return is a big boost to the lineup. Even if he isn't peak Yordan, his presence matters. His missile of a home run to centerfield was the wow moment of his return series, but Alvarez drawing five walks in nine plate appearances speaks to what opponents think of him. Still, offense remains an Astro struggle all too often. The Rockies have the worst pitching staff in MLB. The Astros managed nine runs in three games against it. At least that was enough to win two out of three. 67 times this season the Astros have scored three or fewer runs, equaling their three or fewer total of the entire 2024 season. For a good while this year the Astros were winning an amazing percentage of their games where the offense did little. At one point the Astros were 19-27 when scoring three or fewer, which was stunning success and as I wrote at the time, wholly unsustainable. Since then, the Astros have lost 20 of the last 21 games in which they failed to score four.
Christian Walker’s power surge has been a boon, of late helping offset Jose Altuve’s slump (just 10 hits in his last 60 at bats heading into the Angels series) and Carlos Correa’s lack of thump (just two extra base hits and a sub-.700 OPS over his last 15 games). Over 46 games played from July 1 through Thursday, Walker has been very good hitting .279 with an .859 OPS. That doesn't undo his being wretched through June, but credit where credit is due.
Alvarez is the big bopper (remember the ex-Astro who had that nickname?) addition to Joe Espada's lineup cards, but Jake Meyers could be a lower key big return as well next week. To call Chas McCormick and Jacob Melton poor offensive players this season would be an understatement along the lines of saying Yao Ming is above average in height. When Meyers blew out his right calf it short-circuited what was his breakout big league season. Even if Meyers can't regain that form, by accident he'll still be better than what McCormick and Melton have provided.
After finishing up with the Angels on Labor Day, the Astros get the Yankees for three big games at Daikin Park starting Tuesday. Hunter Brown starting Sunday means he will not pitch against the Yankees. That's not a mistake, it's just how the rotation falls. It will be a mistake if the Astros' brain trust doesn't properly map out starting pitching ahead of the massive matchups against the Mariners September 19, 20, 21 and make sure both Brown and Framber Valdez start games in that series. After this homestand wraps, the Astro have only six home games remaining versus 15 on the road.
Oh yeah. Glenn Davis was "The Big Bopper."
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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