THE PALLILOG
Texans' latest move shows us exactly what they have planned for this season
Sep 10, 2021, 9:54 am
The Texans traded their best corner to the Saints this week. Composite image by Jack Brame.
2021 Houston Texans Football: Here Goes Nothing! Not their chosen marketing slogan as the Texans enter their 20th season, but it could have been. Nothing in terms of expectations. Nothing in terms of anything to be excited about. Unless maybe their new animatronic bull head gets your juices flowing? It's no fun as a fan grinding through a season where losing benefits future seasons than winning week to week does good in the current season, but that's the Texans' reality. Being a spunky squad that overachieves to finish 7-10 or something would only damage their draft slotting next spring when the Texans finally again have their full complement of top picks. Bumbling to 3-14 and having the first pick or darn close to it is best.
Trading off the best of their underwhelming cornerbacks is further proof that the Texans want to lose quite regularly this season. They should be up (down?) to the challenge! In agreeing to pay the bulk of his salary in dealing Bradley Roby to the Saints, the Texans essentially bought a third round draft pick for seven million dollars.
As the Texans open their season Sunday at NRG Stadium vs. the Jaguars, healthy, under contract, obvious best player on the team Deshaun Watson begins collecting approximately 600 thousand dollars per week to not play. Theatre of the absurd.
As sign of the times, the Jaguars are three point road favorites Sunday coming off a 2020 season in which they won opening day then lost their remaining 15 games.
Astros' magic number
For the eleventh time this season, the Astros start a series having just missed an opportunity to sweep a three or four game series by losing the finale. That's an oddly high number, but means the Astros won those eleven series in addition to the ones they have swept this season. At 81-58 they're on pace to win 94 games and closing in on their fourth American League West title in five years. Their magic number to clinch over both Seattle and Oakland is 18. So barring a major collapse, the Astros' real race now is holding off the White Sox for home field advantage in their highly likely best of five AL Division Series matchup. The Astros enter the weekend a game and a half up on the ChiSox and hold the tiebreaker. Of course the Astros can win without home field (see 2017 World Series), just as they can lose with home field (see 2019 World Series). You definitely want home field if you can get it. The White Sox are 46-24 in their ballpark this year, 34-36 everywhere else. At minimum, last licks is an advantage always preferable.
Astros and Angels this weekend at Minute Maid Park. While the Astros pursue another World Series run, the Angels as usual are playing out the string. Friday night it's Shohei Ohtani pitching (and hitting) for the Angels as he continues an unprecedented season. As Babe Ruth transitioned from a great pitcher to the most awesome offensive force in Major League history, he never spent a full season as both an everyday player and pitcher in the starting rotation. Ohtani is doing it and at exceptional levels on both fronts. His bat has faded since the All Star game, though he still leads the big leagues with 43 home runs, but his pitching has improved. Since the break in seven starts Ohtani is 5-0 with a 2.20 earned run average. The Angels are mediocre, but Ohtani is the best player in baseball this year and deserves the AL Most Valuable Player award.
NCAA
For most of the 20th century they were Southwest Conference rivals. In the not too distant future they will become Southeastern Conference rivals. Saturday, Texas and Arkansas play a mere non-conference game in Fayetteville. The Longhorns enter off of new Head Coach Steve Sarkisian's solid winning debut over Louisiana, the Razorbacks off of being tied starting the fourth quarter with Rice before scoring three touchdowns and winning 38-17. Almost seems too obvious that the Horns should hook the Hogs.
After the Houston Cougars' second half collapse against Texas Tech, Dana Holgorsen's record at UH sits at seven wins 14 losses. The Coogs make the shorter than five mile trip to Rice Stadium Saturday. The Owls might be frisky this season but a UH loss would be a state of the program embarrassment.
Buzzer Beaters
1. More fun: Having the Yankees continue falling apart and they miss the playoffs completely, or have them advance to the ALCS and lose again (whether to the Astros or White Sox)?
2. Tennis is a niche sport, but the U.S. Open has been sensational this year. If Novak Djokovic wins two more matches to take the men's title and win the Grand Slam it's the individual sporting achievement of the year. On the women's side, British 18-year-old Emma Raducanu had to win three qualifying matches to even make the main draw. She's ranked 150th in the world with career earnings of about $300,000. Saturday she plays for the title against 73rd ranked Canadian Leylah Fernandez who turned 19 Tuesday with career earnings of about 800K. The loser Saturday cashes a check for 1.25 million. The winner, 2.5 mil.
3. Texans' final record prediction if these are the only options: Bronze 0-17 Silver 6-11 Gold 3-14
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”