NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Youngblood, Donating Blood and ELeague

Nerds Around Town: Youngblood, Donating Blood and ELeague
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!

It's now officially August, let's get this month going strong as we start to wind the year down.

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

As a reaction to this traumatic and crazy weekend, I'm asking people to give blood and give the gift of life. Find your local blood donation center and donate. Check in with the Regional Gulf Coast Blood Center, and donate blood if you can and are able, and apparently its free ice cream month thanks to Blue Bell Ice Cream. So that's nice.

ELEAGUE?

Friday night, TBS aired another episode their ELEAGUE series. Consistently they've been covering most of the big tournaments. Covering things like Injustice 2 and Street Fighter as well as the bigger Counterstrike tourneys amongst other coverage. This week they were airing Gears of War 5 preview event, the game is now out yet and this event was meant to be an attention getting, big time event. Well through the first 45 minutes of the episode there has been almost NO game footage. Tons of snippets but they haven't aired a single match at all. This show has been a consistently good watch for competitive gaming, but this episode I'm not sure if Microsoft has asked them to withhold game footage until the game release or something, but it's disappointing how little of the actual matches they're airing. It's a far step down from the Overwatch coverage ESPN/Disney XD has been doing.

SUPPORT INDY STUFF

This guy Brian reached out to me and bought my comic book so I checked out his independent comic brand, Dojo Kun Comics. It's a combined universe of heroes and characters with some great art and some awesome covers. One cool thing about Dojo that you need to check out is he's figured out how to get on Amazon. You can order his book from Amazon Prime and get it in two days delivered, that's flipping awesome! Amazon is obviously the big daddy of distribution and one of the big troubles with comic books is there is only one national distributor in the industry, and they aren't the easiest to work with, so people who can change the formula and figure out a better way to handle the issue of distribution are definitely ahead of the game. Amazon might be a killer of many industries but in the comics industry, I think they may be a savior if used properly.

YOUNGBLOOD

One of the architects of the rise of Image Comics, Rob Liefeld has recently come forward and announced that he has lost control of one of his debut properties, Youngblood. Youngblood is one of those books that came out during the birth of Image Comics and sold millions of issues over the rich beginnings of the young publisher. The situation he got himself into, was that basically he brought in the wrong guy, and eventually he lost total control of his property. It isn't just Youngblood though, of the roughly twenty-one properties he created during his time at Image and later at Awesome, he now only controls some of them and the others he has partial control. Essentially the sins of his youth have come back and hurt his long-term future. It's ultimately a story every young entrepreneur and creative should learn from.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

I was going to write something political here but honestly, I'm done. I'm done talking about politics with people because I think people have already made up their mind. They don't care what happens or what's said or who does what, I think people on both sides have already decided how they feel, what should happen and what's important. It's disappointing to see and it's upsetting that we can't have an evolving conversation about things as they happen and change. Marco Rubio (who isn't one of my favorite people) changed his position on magazine size regulations after he learned about the shooting in his home state and that if the magazines had been shorter there were times were fewer people may have been shot or died because of reloading. I think it's fair for people to change their minds, I think if something happens that makes them feel differently we should be allowed to say so, and at some point I think these shootings have to reach a point where we as a country can agree that there are several factors and some of them may involve looking at how easy it is to buy a gun. There are other factors of course, but one of them might be the ease with which certain people get a gun.

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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The future is bright! Composite Getty Image.

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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