4th and a mile with Paul Muth
The Houston sports misery index: Here's who has it the worst
Oct 22, 2020, 9:52 am
4th and a mile with Paul Muth
Let's be honest. Houston sports embodied 2020 about as comprehensively as possible. At the moment, the longest tenured coach or GM for a major Houston sports franchise is Dusty Baker. He clocks in at about eight months, three weeks, and two days. Suffice it to say, there's been some turnover.
The bad news is that the prospects of Houston's big three teams don't look particularly rosy moving forward. The Texans are bad, the Rockets are rudderless, and the Astros are still universally reviled outside of Houston.
The good news is that they each vary in their level of despair. As such, here's how each team ranks in potential turnaround time:
#3: The Houston Texans
The Problem: The team is 1-5. Their defense is terrible. They have no first or second round draft picks this season. They have no full time head coach or gm. Jack Easterby still works there.
In a rare move, Texans owner Cal McNair showed that he might actually interested in owning a team that wins football games by firing Bill O'Brien earlier this month. Even if they hire universally prized Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, their offensive line in addition to their defense is still atrocious. There are holes all over the roster that need to be plugged and with no first or second round draft picks, finding a quality general manager may prove difficult.
The Upside: Deshaun Watson. That should be enough to keep a smile on Texans fans' faces. They're going to keep losing, but at least it will be fun and flashy. Watson also could serve as just enough of a lure to bring in a coach like Bieniemy. There are also contracts that could and should be moved by the trade deadline to amass as much draft capital as possible, as pointed out previously
#2: The Houston Rockets
The Problem: The Rockets are a top-heavy team with little depth and no center. They recently lost one of the best general mangers in the modern era of basketball and their head coach quit. They're up against the salary cap with few tradeable assets and no draft picks of note.
For the past 13 years, the Rockets have always had a shot simply because general manager Daryl Morey was in the building. That's no longer the case after Morey stepped down last week. He leaves behind a team with no head coach, and a roster configured for a small-ball experiment that imploded in the playoffs. With an owner that has been singing from the mountaintops about how much money he's lost during the pandemic, one has to wonder how much money he's willing to spend on a new coach. The Russell Westbrook/James Harden experiment ended with mixed results, but with all of their draft picks spoken for and a lack of attractive contracts, it looks like they'll be forced to try it again for at least another year.
The Upside: The Rockets decided to promote executive vice president Rafael Stone to GM. Stone served as Morey's main assistant in recent years, so hopefully their philosophy in the front office remains consistent. There's also been interest shown around the league in Westbrook. If he can be offloaded at all, that would be a step in the right direction.
#1 The Houston Astros
The Problem: In a cash strapped offseason, the Astros stand to lose outfielders George Springer, Michael Brantley, and Josh Reddick. Pitcher Justin Verlander and closer Roberto Osuna will be largely unavailable next season due to Tommy John surgeries. Their first and second round draft picks in the 2021 have been stripped by MLB as part of their punishment in the sign-stealing scandal. Pretty much everyone outside of Houston hates them.
You can pretty much say goodbye to the Astros entire starting outfield. George Springer has been criminally underpaid his entire career, Brantley proved his worth, and Reddick did the opposite. Verlander curiously announced Tommy John surgery at the end of the season, and there's no telling when Osuna will be back. It's hardly likely that the Astros will be spenders in general manager James Click's first full offseason at the helm based off of previous comments made to the media. Oh, and next year there will probably actually be boos coming from the stands.
The Upside: The Astros had no choice this season but to throw out a ton of young, unproven arms and it paid off surprisingly well. Framber Valdez has gone from rotation guy to potential day one starter in my opinion, and guys like Cristian Javier and Enoli Paredes have steadied a bullpen that looked like it would be one of the team's biggest positional liabilities. Even if they don't keep all of them, they at least have some interesting trade chips now that have a decent resume to go off of. The outfield will be completely new, but it will be anchored by Kyle Tucker, who used 2020 as an impressive coming out party. And don't forget about Yordan Alvarez.
It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
We have so much more to discuss. Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
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