RANKING THE TEXAS DIVISION 1 SCHOOLS
Texas State moves up and Texas A&M manages to maintain their rank with an ugly win
Oct 3, 2019, 6:45 am
UH Football/Facebook
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!
12. RICE
It just keeps getting worse and worse for Rice. I don't know where the bottom is but honestly it seems like they don't know where it is either. Bad times all around for the Rice program as they travel to UAB and probably collect another beating.
11. UTSA
They travel this week to UTEP and honestly, I don't think a change of fortunes is in the cards. UTEP is playing pretty good football and traveling from San Antonio to El Paso is enough of an excuse for these guys to throw in the towel this week.
10. UTEP
The losing can stop and finally a chance to get right, UTEP has been playing tough opponents and not playing terrible. This is a game the team has to be looking forward to, an opportunity to turn around this recent slide and start playing some winning football again.
9. NORTH TEXAS
Well they didn't save their season last week after a loss to Houston, so they're off this week and that's about all the good news they get.
8. TEXAS STATE
Well last week I asked how they would handle success and game planning for a game they should win against Nicholls, they handled it well and got another W. This is the foundation they can use to keep building a successful season. Having the week off after two wins is a good thing and a bad thing, but hopefully Texas State can make the most of it.
7. TEXAS TECH
Everyone knew a loss was coming against Oklahoma, but how will they bounce back and handle Oklahoma State will be the deciding factor for this team this week. Teams lose, it happens to most teams in a college football season, but good teams find a way to put losses behind them and focus on the next opponent. Quiet the noise and bring the thunder.
6. HOUSTON
Well all the redshirt drama aside, they won against North Texas and have this week off. Sitting around after a loss is always demoralizing, sitting around after a win is always a little easier. Hopefully this week can be a calming week for the program and the team.
5. TCU
I really wanted to move TCU over SMU after this Kansas win but with the games this week, I felt like I could wait one more week and see how everything shakes out but I do like what TCU is doing. I know SMU beat TCU two weeks ago but I like this win over Kansas. They are doing good things and playing good football again.
4. SMU
SMU just keeps on rolling, there doesn't seem to be any team they can't handle right now. They're playing really good football and there's no telling how high they can go this season. But I should mention, that TCU is nipping at their heels and I say how high could they get but I don't know that I could reasonably move them over A&M, right?
3. TEXAS A&M
Hey they beat Arkansas! But they looked awful doing it. How many heart attack games are these guys going to play this year? I want to buy into A&M and that they are at least the number 2 program in the state but I'm not sure I can right now. They're off this week so lets see if they can get their minds right and make a real push back at Baylor.
2. BAYLOR
They didn't look great against Iowa State but at least it was a win and A&M didn't look good against Arkansas either. Baylor goes to Kansas State and is looking at needing a good, strong win to get some distance from A&M. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.
1. TEXAS
Coming off a bye, they go to West Virginia who can give people trouble, I think because of the travel. Let's see how Texas comes out of the bye week, are they going to be sluggish or are they going to explode out of gates and establish some dominance? Let's see.
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It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me 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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