Texans need no Luck at all

TEXANS ROUNDTABLE PRESENTED BY TEXAS STAR GRILL SHOP

The Texans have a big challenge when it comes to winning the AFC South again this season.

The division got better with Jacksonville adding QB Nick Foles, but one thing that helps the Texans is Andrew Luck's inability to stay healthy.

ESPN 97.5's Joel Blank, Barry Laminack, and Raheel Ramzanali talk about Andrew Luck's leg injury, and discuss if the key to winning the division comes down to the play of Houston's defense, or the health of Andrew Luck. The Texans Roundtable is presented by Texas Star Grill Shop.

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The Astros have some big decisions to make.Composite Getty Image.

The MLB postseason is right around the corner, and one of the most popular discussions about the Astros has to be (or at least was) Justin Verlander's role moving forward.

It appears Houston GM Dana Brown plans on reevaluating Verlander's status after the first playoff series.

Which is quite a position reversal compared to his last comments about JV when he broke out the “back of the baseball card” nonsense on the club's flagship station on September 11. Better late than never, I suppose.

With that said, it appears the Astros will role with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Yusei Kikuchi. Which seems like the right choice at the moment.

But now the Astros have another x-factor to navigate. If Yordan Alvarez is able to play with his sprained knee in the postseason, it's hard to imagine he would be playing in left field.

With him locked in at DH, Yainer Diaz will have to either catch or play first base. The same goes for Victor Caratini if he's in the starting lineup. Which also means that games in which both Caratini and Diaz play, Jon Singleton will be on the bench.

We'll likely see a platoon at first between Caratini and Singleton when Diaz is behind the dish. Mauricio Dubon could also factor in.

Which leads us to the outfield. Kyle Tucker is a no-brainer to play right field, and we'll likely see a platoon in left between Jason Heyward and Dubon.

One would assume Jake Meyers gets the nod to play center field due to his excellent play on defense, but you never know. As Chandler Rome noted in his article for The Athletic this week, Meyers has the 4th-worst OPS (.540) in baseball since the All-Star break.

Dubon is starting in center on Tuesday night. Make of that what you will. Could be nothing, or could be something.

We could also see Chas McCormick play some center or left field should he return healthy from his hand/finger injury.

Plus, how many pitchers and position players should the Astros carry in the Wild Card round? Should they keep more hitters so they can pinch hit for guys like Meyers should they find themselves down in a big game?

Don't miss the video above for the full discussion!

*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) 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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