Roof Wars
The Astros have been trolling the Texans by popping the top on Minute Maid this season
Apr 17, 2019, 6:50 am
Roof Wars
Maybe you haven't noticed, but the Astros have been trolling the Texans hard this season. No, I'm not talking about them being a competently run franchise who swept two playoff teams from last season as well as the team leading the division last week. No, to notice this troll job you would have to look up. I'm talking about the use of a retractable roof.
Over the course of the opening six game homestand the Astros had the roof open three times. Two of the three times it was closed was due to rain and the other was due to a purported mechanical issue. The Texans on the other hand have not operated their retractable roof for a game in at least three years.
Before passing judgment I decided to go to the numbers and look at the weather conditions at game time for each of the past 6 Astros games and all 8 Texans home games last season. Let me warn you, it is not a pretty picture for those that like to see their tax dollars in use.
Astros homestand April 5 – April 10
Date | First Pitch Temperature | Roof Status |
April 5 | 72 | Open |
April 6 | 77 | Closed – Rain |
April 7 | 65 | Closed – Rain |
April 8 | 84 | Open |
April 9 | 91 | Closed – Mechanical issue |
April 10 | 81 | Open |
Texans 2018 Home games
Date | Kickoff Temperature | Roof Status |
September 23 | 79 | Closed |
October 7 | 83 | Closed |
October 14 | 92 | Closed |
October 25 | 66 | Closed |
November 26 | 51 | Closed |
December 2 | 77 | Closed |
December 9 | 47 | Closed |
December 30 | 45 | Closed - Rain |
To my knowledge the Texans have never stated that the roof at NRG is inoperable, and it actually was opened for part of the halftime show during Superbowl 51. This makes their failure to use this expensive piece of technology, paid for in part by tax dollars, all the more puzzling. So how much did you pay for the NRG roof? Well 43% of the stadium was financed by the public, and with the roof carrying a $48,000,000 price tag, county tax payers get to see $20.6 million of their dollars do absolutely nothing on Sundays.
Looking at the kickoff conditions for last season I see 5 games where the roof could have been open with fans in the stadium being comfortable. The most common argument you will hear for the roof at NRG being closed is that it makes the stadium louder. Well guess what – the Seahawks and Chiefs play outdoors and they are consistently ranked as having two of the loudest stadiums in the league. The issue with noise at NRG isn't the roof. It is the people in the stadium. And no, I'm not ragging on Texans fans – I myself am not one to go crazy and scream at sporting events. It is just a fact that NRG is not near the top of the list of loudest stadiums, and letting a $48 Million dollar piece of equipment go to waste to try to create an atmosphere that just isn't there is peak stupidity.
Yes, having a domed stadium is a necessity in Houston's climate but there is something that feels so right when you get to see sports played outside when the conditions are comfortable. Baseball season only affords the Astros about a month to use their roof but at least they take advantage of that time. The Texans on the other hand play almost all of their season when conditions are favorable for outdoor football, yet they deny their fans that opportunity. So to the Astros I say keep up the trolling, the Texans deserve every bit of it when it comes to use of the roof their fans paid for almost half of.
There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.
Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.
The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.
But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.
The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.
Astros pitcher hires a new agent
Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.
But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.
With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.
However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.
Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).
Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.
I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.
There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?
Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.
If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.
One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.
Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.
It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.
The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.
Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?
After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.
And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.
So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.
Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.
Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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