BARRY WARNER'S VIEW
Off the top of my bald head: Welcoming back the cheater Brian Cushing
Dec 5, 2017, 6:25 am
Brian Cushing had help building those arms. Tim Warner/Getty Images
Whippee dipppee doooooo.
The return of the Prodigal Son.
With a straight face at his Monday press conference, Bill O’Brien was asked ”How can ILB Brian Cushing add value to the defense? Specifically, with all the injuries, can he be an impact player?”
O’Brien’s answer: “Absolutely. His leadership, number one, his knowledge of our defense, his experience playing in our defense, his toughness. All of those things could definitely help our defense.”
No doubt the defense will be introduced, with the last player being No. 56, ten-year veteran Brian Cushing, coming off his 10-game PED suspension, the second of his career. There is no question, when healthy, he was one of the top inside linebackers in the NFL.
But one question always came up, from his high days at Bergen Catholic in New Jersey to freshman USC and the Texas. Like one of the Beatles Classics was he doing it with a classic from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band:
Oh, I can get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, going to try with a little help my my friends
In his case, steroids.
Let me refresh your memory.
Cushing put himself in exalted territory after his rookie season when he first got popped.
With the blessing of Texans naive owner Bob McNair, the linebacker declared himself a victim of a previously unknown medical condition:
Overtrained athlete syndrome.
I am not making this up!
Cushing failed a drug test, played the entire NFL season, was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and then -- and only then -- was suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the following season.
He tested positive for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, and yes, the first two syllables of the last word indicate he was trying to get some testosterone buildup going after a cycle of steroid use. That's what the NFL thinks, anyway.
I keep waiting for an athlete to use the addiction defense. Why hasn't this happened? It's foolproof and way more plausible than the fantasies we're being fed. Addiction is way more socially acceptable -- and medically backed -- than OTAS.
For one, Cushing is the only guy in the world who has been diagnosed with OTAS, so that might work against him in the arena of public opinion.
How did the commissioner keep a straight face? McNair sat across from Goodell and asked that Cushing's suspension be lifted because of the previously unknown condition OTAS.
In the process of defending and believing Cushing, McNair issued one of the most ill-informed statements on steroid use in the history of bloated athletes: "His weight hasn't changed appreciably since he's been with us," McNair told Peter King of Sports Illustrated.
Other owners and league suits just laughed behind McNair’s back.
I’ve always admired Cushing and his work-ethic but I have to admit that I’ll definitely view him a bit differently as time goes on. I won’t go to the extreme and say that he’s a fraud because you still have to be talented to get into this league. However, in a sport that’s so hinged on being the utmost of competitive, he may have cheated a bit to get to where he was.
Due to his numerous surgeries, he was never the same three down linebacker. Watching him in pass coverage was hard, as he lost a couple of steps.
In this day and age of sport, where teams have multiple trainers and interests, there is no excuse for any player to put anything into their body without first checking.
There is a specific list of banned substances.
Period.
Even in a league with many semi-literate former “student athletes,” there should never be any excuse.
Treating Cushing like some hero coming back from multiple injuries is disingenuous. Taking reps away from rookie inside backer Zach Cunningham is just plain stupid.
He let his team down, again, costing himself close to $4 million in salary.
Bill O’Brien is forced to parrot the party line.
Welcome home cheater.
Soak it all up.
You will not be a Texan next year.
Chirp!
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The Astros have already been swept in four series this season. They were swept in four series all of last season. As Mexico City says bienvenidos to the Astros this weekend, there are certainly more than a few folks fretting that the Astros are already close to saying adios to playoff hopes. The Astros are not at the point of no return, though one can see it out there on the horizon. It wouldn’t take another month of their garbage level 7-19 performance for the season to be essentially down the drain.
If the Astros were in the American League East, they’d already be ten games out of second place. But they’re not! If in the AL Central they’d be eleven and a half games back of Cleveland. But they’re not! Dozens of teams have rebounded to win divisions from larger deficits much later in the season than the Astros face presently. The Seattle Mariners lead the thus far weak AL West at 13-12. The Astros being six and a half games in arrears of the M’s and six back of the Texas Rangers in late April is far from optimal but nowhere near devastating.
Multiple media outlets have noted how few teams historically have started a season in as stumblebum a fashion as the 2024 Astros and wound up making the playoffs. What every outlet I have seen noting that failed to include: this is just the third season since Major League Baseball added a third Wild Card to each league’s postseason field. So, while 7-19 out of the gate is indisputably awful, it is not the death knell to the extent it has been over generations of MLB.
The issue isn’t where the Astros sit in the standings, it’s that they have played atrocious baseball and aren’t providing reason for optimism that a stark turnaround is imminent. The starting rotation is the best hope. Justin Verlander has made two starts. Framber Valdez rejoins the rotation Sunday. Cristian Javier should be a week or so away. Obviously, Ronel Blanco isn’t going to continue pitching as well as he has through his first four starts. But if he is a good number four starter, that’s fine if the top three coming into the season pitch to reasonably hoped for form.
Hunter Brown simply is not a good big league pitcher. Maybe he someday fulfills his potential, but the data at this point are clear. What can Brown do for you? Not much. Spencer Arrighetti needs better command to be a good big league starter. J.P. France was a revelation over his first 17 starts last season, but since has looked like the guy who posted underwhelming numbers when in the minor leagues. If the Astros wind up with 50-plus starts from Brown/Arrighetti/France their goose will probably be cooked.
The only MLB teams with worse staff earned run averages than the Astros’ horrific 5.07 are the Chicago White Sox (Wait! They have Martin Maldonado!) and Colorado Rockies. At 3-22 the White Sox are on an early pace to post the worst record in the history of Major League Baseball. The Rockies never have a chance to post good pitching stats because of the mile high offensive freak show environment in Denver.
Way to go, Joe
Props to Joe Espada for his conviction in making what he believed to be the right call in pulling Verlander after four and a third innings Thursday at Wrigley Field. Verlander allowed no runs but had reached 95 pitches in just the second outing of the injury-delayed start to his season. Not easy for a rookie manager skippering what has been a Titanic journey thus far to pull a surefire Hall of Famer who was two outs away from qualifying for a win. Many were no doubt poised to destroy Espada had Rafael Montero given up the lead in the fifth. Verlander was angry at being pulled from any chance at his 259th career win. Understood, but the manager’s job is to make the decisions he thinks are in the ballclub’s overall best interest. That Montero and Bryan Abreu combined to blow the lead in the sixth is immaterial.
Then there's the offense…
Six runs total the last four games. Scored more than four runs in just one of the last nine games. Timely hitting largely non-existent.
At last check Alex Bregman still hawks that “Breggy Bomb” salsa. At the plate, he’s been mostly stuck in “Breggy Bum” mode, including zero bombs (home runs). 23 games played without a homer is Bregman’s longest drought since 2017 when he had separate 35 and 27 game stretches between dingers. Bregman has a history of slow first months of the season, but never anything as inept as he’s posted thus far. A litany of lazy fly balls, infield pops, and routine grounders add up to a .216 batting average and feeble .566 OPS. Reference point: Martin Maldonado’s worst OPS season with the Astros was .573. If Bregman was a young guy handed a starting job coming out of spring training, if a viable alternative were available, there’s a chance he’d be a Sugar Land Space Cowboy right now. Bregman’s track record makes it a decent bet that he winds up with decent numbers, but nothing special. Certainly nothing remotely worth the 10 years 300 million dollars or whatever Bregman and agent Scott Boras intend(ed) to seek on the free agent market this coming offseason. Two hits Thursday did get Bregman to the 1000 hit plateau for his career.
Despite arriving south of the border with his batting average at .346, even Jose Altuve has his warts. With runners in scoring position, Altuve has one hit this season. One. In 16 at bats. Small sample size, but it counts. That’s .063. Yordan Alvarez has been no great shakes either, five for 24 (.208) with RISP.
One wonders what would happen if the Astros got a hold of and “lost” Jose Abreu’s passport/visa this weekend in Mexico City and Abreu couldn’t get back into the U.S. after the two-game set with the Rockies.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.