DEEP RUN FOR COOGS?
Here's why Houston sports fans should savor Cougars' journey in NCAA Tournament
Mar 10, 2021, 10:45 am
Go Coogs! Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
There's a memorable scene in the movie Casino in which Robert De Niro's character, Sam Rothstein, is walking through the Tangiers Casino. In those opening moments his narrative highlights how he's now being admired & respected, the days of having a seedy reputation have "washed away" and he now has a fresh outlook and perspective. The same can be true next week as the University of Houston begins their journey, navigating the tournament field in Indianapolis. Imagine if over the next 2 1/2 weeks the city of Houston can wash away it's regrettable sports sins. A run to the Final Four would do just that.
The sin of allowing J.J. Watt to land in Arizona of all places. For the record, the Cardinals haven't actually won a playoff game in 5 years, and have only two playoff wins since January 2009. How about the sin of watching a watered down version of a previous championship caliber club in the Houston Astros? Astros fans, get ready for the growing pains of replacing Springer at the top of the lineup with Myles Straw whose on base percentage is going to be nothing short of dreadful. Speaking of dreadful, well, there's the Houston Rockets. Aside from a potential fire sale at the upcoming NBA trade deadline, they aren't relevant in the association any longer.
The best thing going right now in the city (as we attempt to drown out the Deshaun Soap Opera), are Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars. The administration knows exactly what it has, which is refreshing, recently rewarding Sampson with a contract extension that will keep him here through the 2026-27 season. For Sampson it's his 6th consecutive 20 plus win campaign, and throughout the state of Texas, the Cougars under his watch have won more games than any other D1 program, including Baylor who's been solid of late.
Assuming Sampson and his staff can keep his team under wraps in Indy, avoiding all the Steak and Shake handcrafted burgers and fries, (I personally like a side of the Chili Mac Supreme) they should advance with ease during the opening rounds. In recent days you've heard terms floating around campus such as "poised for a deep run." U of H is going to the Final Four, and during the magical ride the next few weeks, be sure to savor it, because for our city, this is the best it's going to get for a very, very long time.
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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