Houston Sports: Three reasons why people despise the newfound swagger

Justin Verlander Vs. Chris Russo

So Chris Russo, formerly of Mike and MadDog radio now working for MLB Network, has a show called High Heat. On the show, he proclaimed that the New York Yankees were the team to beat in the American League. Nothing wrong with that since he has an opinion. But there’s a problem with what he said.

“There’s no way you can’t think that the Yankees are the team to beat in the American League.” The keywords here are no way, which implies that the Yankees are the best and no one else comes close.

Hmm! Didn’t somebody else win the World Series? I thought I saw a team in orange win the whole thing.

Well, this is where Justin Verlander comes in.

https://twitter.com/JustinVerlander/status/963524415085514752

And just to be sure, he clarified himself.

Now, in Russo’s defense, he did say Astros’ fans weren’t going to like it and he was right. But here’s the truth, if the Yankees want to be the best team in the American League, they’re going to have to come through us. It would not surprise me one bit if the ALCS is a rematch between us and the Yankees. After seven games last season, why not? The Yankees got better with Giancarlo Stanton. How do we counter that? We get better with Gerrit Cole.

Fangraphs still have us as the best team entering 2018 to the point where they feel that we’ll win at least 98 games. A fair assessment at best considering the Yankees are seven games behind us. But where it boils down to is the fact that while New York and their fans will forever say that their team is better even in years when they’re not, the reality is that all-time between Houston and New York in major series, New York is 0-3 all-time against H-Town.

Wait a minute! A New York is in my head clarifying something.

Oh, wait! I forgot! New York is 1-3 all-time against us in playoff series. Go back to 1986 to remember the pain and agony. But the bottom line here is that Houston has defeated New York more times so far than they lost. New York will still be the media capital of the world, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they got us on their radar.

It’s called swagger and Houston Sports has that.