NERDS AROUND TOWN
That Joker Trailer, James Harden gummies and the Overwatch League
Apr 4, 2019, 8:33 am
NERDS AROUND TOWN
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, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Hey Nerds!
Thursday is like your favorite appetizer at your favorite restaurant, right?
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
It's a wonderful oasis in the middle of a busy, dirty hustling and bustling city, of course we need it and we want to keep it looking great. The 2019 Brunch Run presented by Green Mountain Energy benefitting The Memorial Park Conservancy is April 6th at 8 a.m. and proceeds go towards the parks conservatorship in order to help keep the park looking nice and lovely. Besides it's just a little running… I think I sprained something saying that unfortunately.
STAGE TWO BABY
The Overwatch League returns today at 6 p.m. Stage two kicks off with The New York Excelsior trying to overcome their crushing and embarrassing early loss in the Stage 1 Playoffs. They came into that playoff as the #2 seed and lost opening round to Seoul Dynasty, so now they're kicking off Stage 2 with hopes of forgetting all about that embarrassing defeat. There are games all weekend through Sunday afternoon, with this first game at 6 p.m. on Disney XD and then two games on Sunday afternoon will also be televised. The Houston Outlaws are off this week but their play resumes next week, so get ready.
A GOOD REMAKE?
The other movie coming out this weekend is Pet Sematary. Obviously this is a remake and a lot of people are tired of the remakes, its become an annoying trend in Hollywood to just do more of the same and call it a day. However sometimes the movies are just riffing on the original concepts and then taking everything in a totally different direction, like Total Recall. That was the same concept of memory alteration and taken in a totally different direction, although there was still a chick with three boobs. I've been assured that was central to the theming of the movie. It looks like Pet Sematary is following more that vein than a true remake. There are tons of elements featured in the trailer that I don't recall from the first movie, most obviously, the kids in the creepy masks, and the dad grooming the daughter and her hair falling out. That might simply be because it was a little boy in the first movie, but hey tension and the creepy factor seem to be set to high in this one. I'm interested to say the least.
THESE GUYS NEED YOU
The point of having a platform is using it and the point of using it is to help other people and to be awesome, right? So let's get to work guys, check out Datura on Kickstarter. It's a fun looking project, great colors, solid art and the story looks fun enough, this is one of those things that looks like it'll be a fun read. The other interesting part is the people involved in it seem to know what they're doing and it seems like also working on other projects for bigger publishers which is cool because it means they're professionals and will deliver but also beyond that it means they're as talented as they seem. This project has six days left and needs people's help to make, so please get on there and check out Datura.
TWO GOOD THINGS
The other day I stopped off in a gas station and was looking for some kind of snack to tide me over, I was driving around running errands (it's a busy life for this nerd) and it would be a while before I had time to sit around and eat. So I found two gems that I've been excited about trying here lately, one was Orange Vanilla Coke and the other was the James Harden Trolli Gummy Sneakers. They're sour and colorful and honestly pretty good. The Coke was flipping amazing, it wasn't quite a dreamsicle flavor which I do think is what they were going for, but it was a sweeter coke and you could taste both elements of orange and vanilla. Overall I give the sneakers and coke both three out of four rumblie tumblys.
EVEN THOUGH NOBODY ASKED ME
This year is a really important year in movies. The X-Men franchise will essentially end, with X-Men Dark Phoenix later this summer, we finally learn how The Avengers will save the world from the Snappening, we get a second Spider Man movie with Tom Holland which is crucial because most Spideys don't make it past the second one and because DC Universe undoes all their hard work of universe building by releasing Joker. The trailer just dropped and it looks amazing, it really looks like it's going to be a good movie which before yesterday I wasn't saying at all. However the bigger issue is Shazam will be out by then, Aquaman made almost a billion dollars, Wonder Woman has another movie coming out and oh yeah, DC doesn't have anyone cast as Superman, Batman and rumors are swirling that now Ezra Miller won't be returning as The Flash. More than half of the cast of their team building movie is gone and also Will Smith won't be coming back as Deadshot for Suicide Squad 2, the connected universe is dead. What Marvel seems to have done so easily has been nothing but trouble for DC, which only emphasizes how good of a job Kevin Feige has done of keeping the Marvel Film Universe in line. Controlling massive Hollywood egos, keeping directors in control to stay within the realm of concepts that are already laid out and not letting anyone take too much control of a particular project (with the possible exception of James Gunn). It's a clear example of what one guy could do and what another group couldn't do, same concepts, same budgets just one succeeded and one failed, miserably.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Thursday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back tomorrow and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House, or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where every shirt is now under $20 or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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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