4:21 PM ET Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook‘s availability for the beginning of the NBA playoffs is uncertain after an MRI revealed a strained muscle in his right quadriceps, the team announced Wednesday. Westbrook will not play in the remainder of the seeding schedule and will be reevaluated before the playoffs begin next week. The […]
Rockets unsure of Westbrook’s status for playoffs — VOICE OF THE HWY
OAKLAND — Major League Baseball laid down the hammer on A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano and Houston Astros hitting coach Alex Cintrón following Sunday’s skirmish. By all accounts, it seemed fair. Laureano appealed his six-game suspension, a punishment for charging the Astros’ dugout and causing the benches to clear. Cintrón will serve his hefty 20-game suspension…
What Ramón Laureano’s suspension means for the A’s — Times-Standard
Even though he heard Alex Cintrón make vile remarks about his mother, A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano said Monday he regrets charging at the Houston Astros hitting coach and now seems prepared to face whatever punishment may be forthcoming from Major League Baseball. “It was a waste of time,” Laureano said of the incident to local…
Ramón Laureano on Alex Cintrón: “I wasted my time with that guy” — Times-Standard
We’re going to go ahead and say Joe Kelly might not be exchanging Christmas cards with either Alex Bregman or Carlos Correa this year. The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher brought some high heat on the mound while going against the Houston Astros on Tuesday night. Kelly first threw well behind Bregman on a 3-0 pitch…
Benches Clear After Joe Kelly Throws At Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa — NESN.com
A report from The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome on Sunday suggested Justin Verlander is out for the 2020 season due to forearm injury. But the righty has taken to Twitter to debunk that claim. Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker on Sunday confirmed Verlander has been shut down for the next couple of weeks after being…
Justin Verlander Debunks Claim Injury Has Sidelined Him For 2020 Season — NESN.com
Smith has been a key part of the Astros bullpen over the past couple of seasons, posting a 3.06 ERA in 84 appearances in 2018 and 2019.
Astros reliever Joe Smith opts out of 2020 season — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Craig CalcaterraJul 15, 2020, 9:04 AM EDT1 Comment
Jim Bowden of The Athletic reports that Astros reliever Joe Smith has opted out of 2020 season. Previously, Smith had cited “concerns about the health and safety of his family” as his reasoning for not reporting to Astros summer camp, and those concerns no doubt are the reason for his decision to forego the 2020 campaign.
Smith has been a key part of the Astros bullpen over the past couple of seasons, posting a 3.06 ERA in 84 appearances in 2018 and 2019. He was particularly important last season, as he posted a 1.80 ERA in 28 appearances after returning from a torn achilles tendon, after which he appeared in 10 of Houston’s 18 postseason games. His absence will be especially felt given that Houston is already dealing with the absence of Jose Urquidy who has yet to make it to Astros Summer Camp.
Smith is the 14th player to opt out so far this year.
Michael Shapiro
Rockets guard Russell Westbrook announced on Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Westbrook said he tested positive prior to the Rockets’ departure for Orlando on Thursday.
“I’m currently feeling well, quarantined and looking forward to rejoining my teammates when I am cleared,” Westbrook tweeted. “Thank you for all the well wishes and continued support. Please take this virus seriously. Be safe. Mask up!”
Neither Westbrook nor James Harden joined Houston in its flight to Orlando on Thursday, though both players are expected to arrive in “a few days” per head coach Mike D’Antoni
Westbrook is the only Rockets’ player with a confirmed positive COVID-19 test as of Monday afternoon, but Houston has still be hindered by the coronavirus. Forward Bruno Caboclo will have to spend the next eight days quarantining in his room in Orlando after “inadvertently” breaking quarantine within the first 48 hours of his arrival, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
2019-20 marks Westbrook’s first season with the Rockets after 11 years in Oklahoma City. The two-time scoring champion and 2016-17 MVP struggled out of the gate with Houston, but quickly found a rhythm once the calendar turned to 2020. Westbrook is averaging 31.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.8 assists since Jan. 1, shooting 52.7% from the field.
Houston will hold its third practice in Orlando on Monday. Its first scrimmage is set for July 24 before the regular season resumes on July 30.
The Rockets’ first game of the NBA restart will be held on July 31 as Houston faces Dallas. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. CT.
Alex Cora is accepting responsibility for his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, but he said Thursday that he is tired of the chatter that it was just he and then-player Carlos Beltran behind the infamous scheme. Particularly bothersome is that then-Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow fingered him as the ringmaster. “If there is […]
Astros’ sign-stealing scandal ‘not a two-man show,’ Cora says — Canoe
On Jackie Robinson Day, Astros manager Dusty Baker said he is frustrated by the dwindling number of black players in Major League Baseball.
Dusty Baker frustrated by ‘dwindling’ number of black baseball players — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
Today is Jackie Robinson Day, commemorating the day in 1947 in which the former Dodgers second baseman broke baseball’s color barrier. His number, 42, has been retired throughout the league in 1997, though Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was allowed to continue wearing the number as he was grandfathered in. In the time since, players have begun all wearing the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day.
Sadly, the percentage of black players in baseball has been on the decline. 7.7 percent of players on Opening Day rosters last year were black. According to SABR, black players haven’t been above 10 percent since 2004. They peaked at 18.7 percent in 1981.
Astros manager Dusty Baker is one of only two black managers in baseball along with the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts. Baker finds the lack of black players in the sport “frustrating,” Kristie Rieken of the Associated Press reports.
Baker said, “Hopefully in this decade and the next decade there will be more guys that get a chance. All they need is a chance. A lot of guys have been bypassed and overlooked.”
The issue is extremely complex and there are myriad factors for the lack of black players in baseball: political, social, and economic. Major League Baseball has, in recent years, made a concerted effort to reach out to a more diverse audience, but seeing that result in a player population change will likely take a while.
The Astros suggest they sincerely apologized for their sign-stealing operation in recent court filings. They are being sued by some season-ticket holders.
In court filings, Astros claim they sincerely apologized for cheating — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Bill BaerMar 23, 2020, 9:04 PM EDT2 Comments
The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan reports that, in recent court filings pertaining to a lawsuit filed against the team, the Astros claim they sincerely apologized for their elaborate sign-stealing operation. It is the team’s first official response to the litigation.
Astros lawyers wrote, “The ‘sign-stealing’ controversy has been a source of great disappointment to Astros fans as well as to the Astros organization. On several occasions, members of the Astros organization – including individual players and its Owner, Jim Crane – have expressed their sincere apologies and remorse for the events described in the report by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.”
Crane didn’t really apologize. At a press conference last month, Crane said, “Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.”
In extremely brief statements to the media, both Alex Bregman and José Altuve spoke in the passive voice in an attempt to shirk responsibility. As if the whole cheating scheme was something that just happened to occur as opposed to being a concerted effort by players that went unchecked by several levels of management.
The Astros have a history of not apologizing when caught with their pants around their ankles. When they have had their arm twisted into giving an apology, their apologies have been weak. Consider that it took the Astros nearly a week to rescind a statement in which it accused Sports Illustrated journalist Stephanie Apstein of a “misleading and completely irresponsible” report about then-assistant GM Brandon Taubman taunting female reporters about Roberto Osuna — arrested for domestic violence in 2018 — when the Astros defeated the Yankees in the ALCS. The report turned out to be entirely accurate and Taubman was fired not long thereafter.
An apology should be heartfelt, acknowledge the bad behavior as well as those negatively impacted by it, and state what corrected actions will be taken in the future. None of the Astros’ apologies — if you can call them that — for any of their nefarious behavior in recent years, has passed muster.
Don’t just take my word for it, though. After hearing Crane, Bregman, and Altuve last month, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant said, “There’s no sincerity, there’s no genuineness when it comes to it.”
Alex Rodriguez, who was wrapped up in a cheating scandal of his own back in 2013-14, acknowledged on ESPN during a spring training telecast that he handled his situation poorly. He offered the Astros an opportunity to learn from his mistakes, saying, “People want to see remorse, they want a real, authentic apology, and they have not received that thus far.”
This is all mostly immaterial as the lawsuit is about whether or not the Astros owe season ticket holders recompense. That being said, the Astros wanting official credit for apologizing is to want credit for doing the absolute bare minimum. And they didn’t even do that well, if one can say they did it at all.
I guess if you have to miss six weeks due to surgery, now is the time
Justin Verlander has groin surgery — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
The Houston Astros announced this afternoon that ace Justin Verlander underwent surgery on his groin. His recovery timeline: six weeks. Which, hey, if you have to miss six weeks, now is the time to do it, right?
Verlander had a couple of different health problems this spring, dealing with that groin early on and then dealing with a hurt lat muscle, each causing him to push back or miss starts. It’s not hard to imagine that the lat injury was compensating for the sore groin. Either way, he’s on the shelf now, as is everyone else, with a lot more time to recover from this without missing games than he otherwise would’ve had.
At the moment the timetable for his return is unknown.
Justin Verlander shut down with a strained lat — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
The view from left field 