Year in Movies: 2015

The Oscars are today.  For the first time in a long time, that sentence means little to me.  Not because of the "too white" boycott, but because I did not see many movies this year.  That being said, I still wanted to hand out fake awards to the best of the year from what I know.

First, the scores.  Overall the year was a bit...underwhelming.  There were some good ones, and one in particular was played over and over as I drove around the Midwest this summer.  But, at least there is enough to make this list:

Scores

Best Action: San Andreas (Andrew Lockington)

Best Family Movie: Inside Out (Michael Giacchino)

Best Drama: Bridge of Spies (Thomas Newman)

Best Science Fiction: Mad Max: Fury Road (Junkie XL)

Best Superhero:  Ant-Man (Christophe Beck)

Best Overall:  Bridge of Spies (Thomas Newman)

Track of the Year: Brothers in Arms (Mad Max: Fury Road, Junkie XL)

Composer of the Year: Michael Giachhino

San Andreas was a huge surprise, I finally listened to it a few weeks ago and was blown away.  Mad Max was my driving go-to score this summer.  Bridge of Spies was a great example of a composer (Newman) being inspired by another composer (John Williams), yet keeping it his own.  Other good scores not mentioned here: The Good Dinosaur, In the Heart of the Sea, Jurassic World, Kingsman, Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Now, for the movies.  Again, I did not see many this year (full list at the bottom), but there was enough to fill out the awards:

Movies

Motion Picture:  Ex Machina

Director:  George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Actor:  Matt Damon (The Martian)

Supporting Actor:  Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Actress:  Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Supporting Actress:  Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation)

Cinematography: Mad Max

Ensemble:  Ant-Man

Action Sequence:  The Cavern (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Funniest: Ant-Man

Most Emotional:  Inside Out

Must Watch:  Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Very Good:  Bridge of Spies, Inside Out, The Martian

Entertaining:  Ant-Man, Jurassic World, Spectre, The Good Dinosaur

Disappointing:  Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pitch Perfect 2, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Please Don't Waste Your Time:  Fantastic Four, Terminator Genisys

Ex Machina admittedly is not for everyone, nor is Mad Max.  The unfortunate thing for Spectre was, after a great opening scene, it seemed like a less interesting version of Rogue Nation.  Fantastic Four was one of the worst superhero movies I've seen, and Terminator was a ridiculous mess.  Thankfully I watched the former on a plane and the latter I rented for 99 cents, so I did not waste too much money on them.

And finally, some movies to hopefully look forward to in 2016:

10 Cloverfield Lane

Batman v Superman

The Jungle Book

Captain America: Civil War

Finding Dory

Independence Day Resurgence

The BFG

The Legend of Tarzan

Star Trek Beyond

Jasone Bourne

Suicide Squad

Doctor Strange

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Rogue One

Assassin's Creed

Passengers

Astros Retrospective: 1970s

Astros By Decade

1970-1979

Blue Shooting Star (1970)

Orange Shooting Star (1971-1974)

Rainbow Uniforms (1975-1979)

Take out 1975, and the 1970s was a decade of stability as the Astros stayed around .500 and either third or fourth place.  Finally, in 1979, the Astros stepped up by winning 89 games and reaching second place, only 1.5 games out of first place.  It was a sign of things to come, as the Astros would begin two and a half decades of sustained success.  It's interesting to think just how could they could have been if they still had Joe Morgan, Rusty Staub, Mike Cuellar, John Mayberry, and the like.

The 1970s in Houston were dominated by a few star players.  Cesar Cedeno, J.R. Richard, and Bob Wastson would be the center piece of the franchise for the majority of the decade.  Doug Rader and Roger Metzger solidified the left side of the infield, contributing greatly to the stability.  The upswing at the end of the decade was aided largely by the success of Richard, Joe Niekro, and Joe Sambito, as well as the addition of guys like Alan Ashby, Jose Cruz, and Terry Puhl.

Record:  793-817, .492

Best Year:  1979 (89-73, 2nd of 6)

Worst Year:  1975 (64-97-1, 6th of 6)

Team of the Decade:

C:  Johnny Edwards (1970-1974)  Basically three full seasons and two part time seasons of decent offense.  There's not much to choose from here.

1B:  Bob Watson (1970, 1975-1979)  Some pretty good seasons here, a .808 OPS in his years in Houston.

2B:  Tommy Helms (1972-1975)  After trading Joe Morgan, the Astros struggled at this position until they got...Joe Morgan back in 1980.

3B:  Doug Rader (1970-1975)  Three twenty home run seasons, not an easy feat in the Astrodome in the 70s.

SS:  Roger Metzger (1971-1978)  The Texas native was the full time shortstop for basically the whole decade.

LF:  Bob Watson (1971-1974)  A .300 average and .800 OPS over these four seasons.

CF:  Cesar Cedeno (1970-1979)  One of the best all time Astros, he had over 1600 hits, 343 doubles, 55 triples, and nearly 500 stolen bases with a .805 OPS in his career in Houston.

RF:  Jimmy Wynn (1970-1973)  1970 and 1972 were very good, 1971 and 1973 not nearly as good.  He had one more good season for the Dodgers in 1974 before hanging on for just three more seasons.

SP:  J.R. Richard (1971-1979)  After a slow start to his career, by 1976, his only 20 win season, he was one of the best starters in the league.  The very unfortunate on field stroke in 1980 ended what could have been a Hall of Fame career.  Over 300 strikeouts in 1978 and 1979 with 9.9 and 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings.

SP:  Larry Dierker (1970-1976)  Not as good as his 1960s, but still a solid starter over six seasons.

SP:  Don Wilson (1970-1974)  His 1971 and 1972 seasons were very good.

SP:  Dave Roberts (1972-1975)  On this list largely due to his 1973 season (17-11, 2.85 ERA, over 249 innings) but he had three other good seasons.

SP:  Joe Niekro (1975-1979)  Largely a relief pitcher until 1977, he won 21 games in 1979 for the first of back-to-back twenty win seasons.  Interestingly he would peak in his mid- to late-30s.

CL:  Joe Sambito (1976-1979)  The Astros' first great relief pitcher, his 1979 season (see below) was key to their very successful season.

Notable Performances:

Cesar Cedeno 1972: .320/.385/.537, 22 HR, 82 RBI, 39 2B, 8 3B, 55 SB, 162 OPS+

Denis Menke 1970: .304/.392/.441, 13 HR, 92 RBI, 26 2B, 82 BB, 127 OPS+

Jimmy Wynn 1970: .282/.394/.493, 27 HR, 88 RBI, 32 2B, 24 SB, 106 BB, 141 OPS+

Bob Watson 1973: .312/.403/.449, 16 HR, 94 RBI, 24 2B, 85 BB, 137 OPS+

J.R. Richard 1979:  18-13, 2.71 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 19 CG, 292 IP, 313 K, 130 ERA+

Don Wilson 1971: 16-10, 2.45 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 18 CG, 268 IP, 180 K, 138 ERA+

Joe Niekro 1979: 21-11, 3.00 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 11 CG, 264 IP, 119 K, 117 ERA+

Joe Sambito 1979: 8-7-22, 1.77 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 91 IP, 83 K, 199 ERA+

Best Trade:

Joe Cannon, Pete Hernandez, and Mark Lemongello to the Blue Jays for Alan Ashby (November 27, 1978)

            They gave up not much for an everyday catcher for the next ten years, not to mention a pretty good announcer for the next few decades.

Worst Trade:

Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Jack Billingham, Ed Armbrister, and Denis Menke to the Reds for Tommy Helms, Lee May, and Jimmy Stewart (November 29,1971)

            One of the worst trades you will see.  One of the all time great middle infielders, a solid starting pitcher, and a good outfielder for three seasons of adequate play at first base and three and a half not very good play at second base.  Using baseball-reference, this was a -82.8 WAR trade for the Astros.  That's terrible.

Best Draft:

1976

            1st round (1st overall) Floyd Bannister

            3rd round (49th overall) Reggie Baldwin

            4th round (73rd overall) Jim Pankovits

            8th round (169th overall) Dave Smith

            17th round (385th overall) Bert Roberge

Floyd Bannister, after two MLB seasons, was traded for Craig Reynolds.  Bert Roberge had a good relief season of 32 innings in 1979.  So basically their best drafted netted them a very good closer (Smith), a decent shortstop (Reynolds), a utility player (Pankovits), and half a good season from a relief pitcher.

Worst Draft:

1971

            1st round (12th overall) Neil Rasmussen - next pick Frank Tanana, George Brett and Mike Schmidt in the second round

            2nd round (36th overall) Art Gardner

            3rd round (58th overall) Paul Siebert - 7 picks later Ron Guidry

            4th round (82nd overall) David Warburton

            5th round (106th overall) James Donker

            6th round (130th overall) Marc Cochran

            You get the idea.

Art Gardner had a total of 96 ABs for the Astros in 1975 and 1977, hitting .167/.216/.167.  Paul Siebert pitched 69 innings over three seasons with a 1-5 record, 3.25 ERA, and 1.514 WHIP for the Astros.

1970 and 1972 and 1974 and 1975 and 1977 weren't much better, but they did not have the talent of 1971.

Astros Retrospective: 1960s

Pitchers and catchers reported yesterday, that first great step towards the beginning of the 2016 MLB season.  In preparation for what should be a good year in Houston, I wanted to start a little decade-by-decade retrospective of Astros baseball history.

We start with the 1960s.  The Houston Colt .45s were created as an expansion team to begin in 1962.

 They played their games in the open air Colt Stadium.

 They quickly realized an open air stadium in Houston, with its humidity, mosquitoes, and rattlesnakes, was probably not a good idea, thus beginning construction on the first domed stadium: the Astrodome.

Nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Astrodome ushered in a new era of ugly, cookie-cutter stadiums that could be used for both baseball and football.  There were plenty of problems.  The ceiling was too bright and blinded the outfielders, so portions of the dome were darkened.  But that made the grass die, so Monsanto invented Astroturf, leading to decades of knee problems all over the country.

With the new stadium came a new identity.  The Houston ball club decided that instead of looking to the past, they needed to look towards the future as the new home of the Manned Spacecraft Center.  They finally settled on the name "Astros," a name apparently already used by the NASA baseball team.

The decade was one of fits and starts.  They started off better than their expansion counterparts, the Mets, but with a .500 record best finish in 1969 they had clearly sunk below the Miracle Mets.  There was plenty of young talent on the team, but thanks to poor management decisions it would take another decade before they would taste the playoffs, while many of the young stars saw glory elsewhere.

Astros By Decade

1962-1969

Record:  555-739 .428

Best Year:  1969 (81-81, 5th of 6)

Worst Year:  1965 (65-97, 9th of 10)

Team of the Decade:

C: John Bateman (1963-1968)  His 1966 season is one of the best for a catcher in Astros' history.

1B:  Rusty Staub (1963-1964, 1968)  The first star in Astros' history, reportedly traded for using a racial slur.

2B:  Joe Morgan (1963-1969)  His second place finish as Rookie of the Year in 1965 is still one of the worst decisions of a major award in baseball history.  Should have been the nucleus of the Astros' first postseason runs in the 1970s, but instead led the Reds because manager Harry "Dixie" Walker was too racist to handle so many black players.

3B:  Bob Aspromonte (1962-1968)  Never had a truly great season, but good enough to hold down the position for most of the decade.

SS:  Sonny Jackson (1963-1967)  This has never been a strong position for the Astros, but he was second in the Rookie of the Year vote in 1966.

LF:  Al Spangler (1962-1965)  His first two seasons, in Colt Stadium, were not bad. 

CF:  Jimmy Wynn (1963-1969)  Would have been a Sabremetric poster boy if it was around in the 1960s and 70s.  It would have been great to see what he could have done if he hadn't played essentially his entire career in the Astrodome and Dodger Stadium.

RF:  Rusty Staub (1965-1967)  His 1967 season in particular is quite fantastic, especially for the Astrodome.

SP:  Larry Dierker (1964-1969)  The Astros' first stud ace, his 1969 season was the first Cy Young-type season, though he did not get any votes despite some MVP votes.

SP:  Turk Farrell (1962-1966)  Had two outstanding years and two very good years but bad won-loss records because the offense was so terrible.

SP:  Mike Cuellar (1965-1968)  Just a game over .500 for the Astros but his other numbers were quite good.  Sure he was going into his age 32 season, but surely he was worth more than just Curt Blefary (who himself only lasted a year before being traded for Joe Pepitone, who was gone after half a year.)

SP:  Ken Johnson (1962-1965)  The Colt .45s had some serious arms but no offense to back them up.

SP:  Don Wilson (1966-1969)  A career Astro, had better years in the next decade.

CL:  Hal Woodeshick (1963-1965)  Not much to choose from here.  His 1963 season was very good (11-9-10, 1.97 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 94 Ks in 114 innings).

Notable Performances:

Jimmy Wynn 1969:  .269/.436/.507, 33 HR, 87 RBI, 23 SB, 148 BB, 166 OPS+

Joe Morgan 1965:  .271/.373/.418, 14 HR, 40 RBI, 22 2B, 12 3B, 20 SB, 97 BB, 131 OPS+

Rusty Staub 1967:  .333/.398/.473, 10 HR, 74 RBI, 44 2B, 60 BB, 153 OPS+

Larry Dierker 1969: 20-13, 2.33 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 305 IP, 20 CG, 232 K, 152 ERA+ 

Mike Cuellar 1966:  12-10-2, 2.22 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 227 IP, 11 CG, 175 K, 155 ERA+

Turk Farrell 1963: 14-13-1, 3.02 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 202 IP, 12 CG, 141 K, 105 ERA+

Best Trade:

Chuck Harrison and Sonny Jackson to the Braves for Denny Lemaster and Denis Menke (October 8, 1967)

Not a "great" trade, Menke had a couple of good years but never as good as when in Atlanta.  There's not a lot of good here.

Worst Trade:

Rusty Staub to the Expos for Jesus Alou, Jack Billingham, and Skip Guinn (January 22, 1969)

The Cuellar trade was pretty bad as well, but this was terrible, and made worse when Donn Clendenon refused to go to Houston thanks to the racist manager (instead he went to New York and won a World Series).

Best Draft:

1966

            1st round (3rd overall) Wayne Twitchell

            5th round (83rd overall) Cliff Johnson

            8th round (143rd overall) Fred Stanley

In the early years of the draft, that's as good as it gets.  Most of the best prospects were still signed outside the draft.

Worst Draft:

1965

            1st round (4th overall) Alex Barrett - 3 picks later Ray Fosse

            2nd round (24th overall) Keith Lampard - 12 picks later Johnny Bench

            3rd round (44th overall) Jim Monin - 9 picks later Andy Messersmith

            4th round (76th overall) Pat Jacquez

            5th round (96th overall) Billy Martin (not that one)

            6th round (116th overall) David Fyle - next pick Hal McRae

            7th round (136th overall) Ken Chelini

            8th round (156th overall) Dan Rudanovich

            9th round (176th overall) Larry Hall

            10th round (196th overall) Danny Walton

            11th round (216th overall) Gary Gentry (did not sign, finally signed by Mets 1967)

            18th round (356th overall) Tom Murphy (did not sign, signed by Angels 1967)

Keith Lampard was only pick to play "significant" time for the Astros, totaling 84 ABs over two seasons.  A complete bust of a draft.

Happy 84th Birthday Maestro Williams!

Today is John Williams' 84th birthday.  In honor of the greatest living composer, I whipped together a quick list of his 25 greatest themes.  And believe me, it could have been at least twice as long.  As note that I did this quickly, so I may have missed one or two, or I may change it later.  Also note, these are only themes from movies.  So no NBC News theme, no Olympics theme, no Summon the Heroes, no Lost in Space, etc.

25.  The Adventures of Tintin (2011) - an underrated jazzy piece

24.  Marion's Theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - a nice, understated theme

23.  Theme from Sabrina (1995) - beautiful piano

22.  Exsultate Justi from Empire of the Sun (1987) - one of his most exultant themes

21.  Rey's Theme from The Force Awakens (2015) -  this one grew on me slowly, but now I really like it

20.  Catch Me If You Can (2002) - Williams began as a jazz musician, and you can really hear it here.  This just sounds like the 60s to me.

19.  Theme from JFK (1992) - political intrigue galore

18.  Hatikvah (The Hope) from Munich (2005) - kind of like a Schindler's List light

17.  Yoda's Theme from Empire Strikes Back (1980) - full of the Force, this is

16.  Across the Stars from Attack of the Clones (2002) - Williams makes even this bad a love story sound good

15.  Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan (1998) - solemn remembrance

14.  Home Alone Main Theme (1990) - the sounds of Christmas

13.  Theme from Schindler's List (1993) - might be the most beautiful and haunting on this list

12.  Wild Signals from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - can you hear those five notes and not think of this movie?

11.  Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter (2001) - a classic fantasy sound just nearly missing the top 10

10.  Battle of the Heroes from Revenge of the Sith (2005) - action packed choir full of urgency

9.  1941 Theme (1979) - about the only good thing about this movie

8.  Star Wars Main Title (1977) - the main theme from my favorite movie series this low?

7.  E.T. Theme (1982) - the perfect theme to explore the playful kid side of Spielberg

6.  Theme from Jurassic Park (1993) - as we can see throughout this list no one does more with fewer notes than Williams, and this is another fantastic example

5.  Midway March (1976) - maybe I'm biased for this due to the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, but this is one of the greatest military marches ever

4.  Jaws Main Title (1975) - as Jack Black says in The Holiday "Two notes and you've got a villain.  I don't know what to say about it.  Totally brill."

3.  The Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back (1980) - perhaps the most iconic theme in movie history, yet I have it 3? 

2.  Raiders March (1981) - nothing says adventure quite like this

1.  Superman March (1978) - the greatest superhero theme of all time, and it's not even close.  Others have tried to copy it, but now they unfortunately have decided to go the complete opposite way and almost ruin superhero score (I'm looking at you Hans Zimmer) but that's a rant for another day.