The Launch Angle

Coming back from being away for the weekend, sitting down at my keyboard, and taking stock of the state of the Astros, I’m just sitting here wondering:

What do we wanna talk about?

Do we want to talk about the fact that one of my only two reasons continuing to watch this team, Jose Altuve, is going to the IL with an unannounced return timetable?

Do we want to talk about how the IL now features Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Jeremy Pena? We’ve went from an offseason infield logjam to a lumber scarcity, because the Baseball Gods we’re playing Catan with keeps putting the robber on our Forest Tiles.

Do we want to talk about the fact that we just rolled out one of the weakest offensive lineups that any of us can recall in the last 10 years?

Do we want to talk about how Joe Espada appears to use the Peter Principle in deciding how far to push and how long to leave his pitchers in games?

Do we want to talk about the Astros’ starting pitcher tonight, Tatsuya Imai who couldn’t pitch well to start the season, went on the IL without any actual injury besides “not pitching well”, rehabbed from the no-injury and couldn’t pitch well in rehab, and came back up to the majors and still couldn’t pitch well?

I don’t want to talk about any of those things either, so let’s talk about something else.

The Twins are an S-Tier Baseball Name

I really like baseball team names. NFL teams, and to a lesser extent NBA and NHL teams , all just seem like they choose random generic ill tempered animals or warriors, and slap together a logo featuring some kind of angry animal head.

I like that baseball team names are just nicknames, and not so forcedly aggressive. A red songbird, a beam of sunshine, a sock that is white: these are all acceptable inspirations for baseball team names.

In my estimation, there are 6 MLB team names that I would classify as S-Tier, because they not only avoid the angry animal trope, but they evoke some specific to the team’s city. You don’t just want your baseball team to be a team that plays in your city. You want your baseball team to be synonymous with your city.

So I present to you the top 6 MLB team names:

1. Twins – It’s perfect. They play in the Twin cities, so they’re nicknamed the Twins. It’s short and catchy. Minnesota, in my mind, has the most fitting, functional, yet still pleasing to the ear name.
2. Astros – Houston is famous for NASA and space travel, and like the Twins, Astros is a name that fits the city it’s in and nowhere else. The fact that it’s just “Astro” and not “Astronaut” adds to its catchiness. Absolute gem of a name.
3. Brewers – “The taste that made Milwaukee famous” is also a city defining industry. The team is named after an aspect of the city they are proud of. Natural name to represent the city.
4. Padres – Numbers 4, 5 and 6 are a wee step behind number 1, 2, and 3but I still consider them home runs. San Diego is famous for their Spanish missions. “Padre” is a catchy way to encapsulate that. I also don’t know if the franchise does anything special for Father’s Day, but they should.
5. Orioles – Look, Cardinals and Blue Jays are fine names as well, but the match of the Oriole with Baltimore is at a different level, because of the actual Baltimore Oriole species, which is also Maryland’s state bird, which should make obvious sense, if not for the fact that the Cardinal is not Missouri’s, and Toronto chose the Blue Jay… even though there’s a different color Jay, the Gray Jay, that is actually alternately named a Canada Jay. I’ll get into that more in future installments of this.
6. Mets – If the Mets were based in Manhattan rather than Queens, this would be even higher on the list, but New York City is the most metropolitan place in the North America, and the shortened version “Met” of “Metropolitan” is a great pairing for the city.

I’ll present the next tier of MLB team names the next time the Astros visit of them, and I again would rather talk about anything besides the 2026 Houston Astros.

Let me know your opinions; do you agree, disagree with these top 6? What are your favorites? Post in the comments below.

Astros @ Twins Game Information and Gamethread Details

Tastuya Imai makes his second start since his return from the IL against the Twins who start lefty Kendry Rojas. Tatsuya’s pitching difficulties this year have been well documented. Rojas has 7.1 innings pitched in 3 games this season, with a 2.45 ERA and looks to be serving as the opener in a bullpen game.

This post will be updated with starting lineups as they are made available.

Update: Jeremy Pena is back. And probably wondering where the hell everyone else is.

The game will be broadcast at 6:40 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.

If you want to change the channel, might I suggest ESPN, where the Buffalo Sabres host the Montreal Canadiens in a Game 7 of the NHL Playoffs? Hockey is awesome. Playoff hockey is even more awesome. Game 7 playoff hockey is just all sorts of crazy awesome.

But if you are absolutely insistent on watching Imai pitch, we hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been amazing on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads, even during this trying season. I’d tell you misery loves company, but even with the Astros losing, it’s still been pretty fun in the gamethreads.

Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .

For more detailed instructions, please see the Guide to the Launch Angle.

If you’ve participated in game threads on other Astros sites in the past, you will probably see a lot of familiar names. Chat, lurk, do whatever! (But please say “hi”, so we know you’re not a bot.)

Feature photo by JL1Row. Creative Commons License.