Houston sports fans have seen too many superstars leave town between the Texans, Rockets, and Astros since 2018. Here are the most painful.
Since the Houston Astros’ World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fall of 2017, things have been rough for Houston sports fans.
Since then the team has suffered a magnitude of scandals, losses and humiliations, including rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson tearing his ACL the next day in practice, blowing a 3-2 lead against the Kevin Durant’s super Warriors, and losing in Game 7 to the Washington Nationals in the 2019 World Series.
Amongst the copious amounts of losing on the team front, Houston has also lost a myriad of superstars in the process whether due to free agency, trade demands, or simply horrible management. With George Springer now with the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Watson trade rumors as annoying to Houston fans as a bad case of tinnitus, here are the worst Houston sports superstar departures since 2018.
Previewing Monday’s Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros sports betting odds and lines, with MLB betting picks, tips and best bets.
MLB “Western Regional” action continues this week with the Seattle Mariners (1-2) closing out a four-game series at the Houston Astros (2-1). The Astros head into the 7:10 p.m. ET Minute Maid Park finale looking to take the series, three games to one, after winning Friday and Saturday and losing on Sunday. We analyze the Mariners-Astros betting odds and lines, with picks and best bets.
Mariners at Astros: Projected starting pitchers
RHP Kendall Graveman vs. RHP Josh James
Graveman: 4.38 career ERA (78 games started)
The veteran hurler pitched for Toronto and Oakland from 2014-18 and is making his first start off Tommy John surgery. Graveman hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since May 11, 2018.
James: 4.06 ERA in 55 career games (4 games started)
The 27-year-old is a starter prospect, but his 2019 campaign (4.70 ERA) was comprised of 48 relief appearances and one start. James averaged 14.8 SO per nine innings, which was the fifth-best mark by a rookie in Major League history.
James should be ready to give the Astros perhaps five innings-plus. He threw 82 pitches in an intrasquad game last Wednesday.
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With this being a bad-new-going-around-the-game and a get-away day for the Mariners … and with the question mark on the mound … and with the Astros having a strong offense, TAKE HOUSTON -1.5 (-125).
Josh won’t be pushed to shoulder a tremendous load, and he has great stuff. Haniger is more of a key injury for Seattle than comes across at first glance.
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These didn’t seem intentional but still, it’s the Astros.
Back before the coronavirus brought the world to a halt, MLB fans were getting ready to spend a season booing the Houston Astros for cheating in 2017 when they won the World Series thanks in part to a trash can.
Now baseball is on the verge of returning for a 60-game season and while no fans are allowed at the games, fans are still looking for the Astros to get beaned by pitchers who are looking for a little payback.
Three members of the Astros got hit by pitches during Tuesday’s exhibition game with the Royals and while these didn’t seem intentional (two were done with the bases loaded) it is still going to be Twitter fodder whenever someone on the Astros gets hit by a pitch this year.
Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman got hit in back-to-back at-bats in the second inning. These came with the bases loaded so credit these to bad pitching by Kansas City:
George Springer is having a rough spring training.
Man, the Houston Astros are really going to have a long season, aren’t they?
The regular season hasn’t even started yet but the fans are already in mid-summer heckling form. They’re making Houston pay for its cheating scandal one way or another.
George Springer is a player who just continues to be relentlessly trolled over and over again.
Last week, Springer tried to quiet the booing crowd but embarrassed himself by whiffing a fastball so hard I could feel the breeze from the swing come through the screen.
A week later this man was struck out looking on a fastball after a fan yelled “curveball” from the stands.
Some guy in the crowd goes “curveball!” and Springer goes down looking on a fastball pic.twitter.com/5WvvLOxAPD
— 2020 Astros Shame Tour (@AsteriskTour) March 3, 2020
Whew boy, George. The crowd really enjoyed that one, too. They cheered as he started on his walk to first before pausing and realizing he was called out.
Shoutout to all the Astros fans in the comments saying that the fan’s call meant nothing and Springer thought the pitch missed the zone. Y’all are missing the joke, too, but that’s alright.
It’s time for the Astros to go full WWE and fight everyone.
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I’ve ripped the Houston Astros a lot in recent weeks over their cheating scandal that went virtually unpunished by Major League Baseball. I’ve called the team a bunch cowards, only to quickly correct myself and label them idiots, which they have mostly been while handling this saga through the first few weeks of spring training.
And what a first few weeks it has been. Star player after star player from opposing teams have crushed the Astros players, players who didn’t get punished for cheating their way to the 2017 World Series title.
Then on Wednesday afternoon George Springer tried to shut up a booing crowd by attempting to hit a ball 342 miles. Instead, he whiffed and fell to his knee. Not a great look.
So here’s what the Astros need to do to handle all of this action that is going to keep coming their way – they need turn full heel and become the villains we all want them them to be.
I’m talking, go full WWE on EVERYONE.
Altuve and the Astros need to forget about trying to win over MLB fans who hate their guts. Fans are going to hate them forever. The chance of everyone coming together and being civil and understanding again is gone. That train left the building when Rob Manfred bumbled his way through a number of poor press conferences in which he woefully tried to explain himself and his lack of action on the players.
That train also left the building when the Astros offered the lamest apologies ever.
So swim in that hate and use it to your power, Astros. Or just at least to make it even more entertaining for us fans.
Altuve should step out of the box and wave for the crowd to boo more.
Astros players who get hit by a pitch should immediately charge the mound.
Guys who think a pitch is a little too far inside should stare down the pitcher for an awkward amount of time.
The Astros should put like 15 trash cans in their dugout and just stare at the the other team, daring them to say something.
Alutve should rip his own shirt off after every home run he hits while his wife cheers from the front row, showing that she doesn’t mind at all if her husband allows the world to see his bare chest.
The sound of buzzers should be the walk-up “song” for each hitter.
Astros pitchers should bean the first batter they face in each game.
The team should have a “Turn-Back-The Clock Night” each week in which they celebrate the 2017 team and do fake ring ceremonies.
They should give out bad fake tattoos to the first 20,000 fans who enter the stadium each night.
Let’s turn this thing into full WWE and have some actual gosh darn fun with it!
This would definitely make baseball interesting this season, which would be good because baseball’s regular season is often far from interesting.
And it would also make Manfred look even more dumb, which is always fun.
The Astros need to do this for themselves, their fans, and the people that don’t like them at all.
Come on, Astros.
Don’t be cowards.
Wednesday’s biggest winner: Pete Webber.
(AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Kelly Wilkinson)
Wednesday marked eight years to the day since the legendary bowler had a legendary trash-talking moment in which he yelled, “Who do you think you are, I am!” at a fan after bowling a strike. Just a tremendous moment in sports history. Now we know the story behind it, too, which is also great. Pete Webber is the man.
Quick hits: Kingsbury’s funny tale… R.J. Barrett is righty?… NFL prospect puts on 70 pounds… And more!
On Wednesday, Astros outfielder George Springer tried to do his part to silence the crowd during a split-squad Grapefruit League game against the Mets. With the crowd booing loudly, Springer looked to unload on a Justin Wilson fastball. Instead, he whiffed so hard that he fell to his knee.
George Springer is showered in boos as he steps to the plate, tries to hit a ball far to silence the crowd and falls to a knee pic.twitter.com/HhRXIBOGyj
The crowd jeered and laughed at Springer’s effort there.
Springer, of course, had a career season in 2017 and made the AL All-Star team in each of the three seasons since the Astros started utilizing their cheating tactics.
The Houston Astros will likely find themselves at the heart of an MLB investigation after a Tuesday report in The Athletic alleged that the team spent the 2017 season using outfield cameras to steal signs.
Shortly after the report ran, which included on-the-record comments from former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, a Twitter video from Jomboy Media’s Jimmy O’Brien highlighted a banging noise that immediately followed signals for off-speed pitches. Then-White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar appeared to notice it at the time and conferred with the catcher to change the signs.
But O’Brien did even more digging, and it became obvious that these apparent sign-stealing tactics played out multiple times during 2017 Astros home games. On Wednesday, O’Brien tweeted a video from George Springer’s 433-foot home run off Chris Flexen.
Uh, yeah, that wasn’t exactly the kind of swing you’d see on an 0-2 count unless the hitter knew what to expect.
In the video, we could hear the banging sound immediately following the signal for an off-speed pitch. But keep an eye on how then-Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud tried to obstruct his sign from the outfield camera’s view. You rarely see that kind of effort to obscure signs when no runner is on base. The Mets clearly thought the Astros were stealing the signs at the time, and they had reason to be suspicious.
According to MLB.com, the Astros batted 10 balls off Flexen that had an exit velocity exceeding 96 mph in four innings (!!!). Springer’s home run, specifically, had a 107 mph EV. He grounded out earlier in the game on a scorched 106.9 mph grounder.
