Born Into Obscurity
For nearly one century, the Houston Astros were known instead as the Houston Buffaloes, which reigned in the city from 1888 until 1962. However, as major baseball leagues were restructured and the National League allowed for expansion franchises in Houston and New York City, the Buffaloes went extinct.
The original baseball team was bought out and a public renaming poll was held in order to dub the new Houston baseball team. This ‘name the team’ contest resulted in the revamped franchise being dubbed the Colt .45s, named after a handgun that was largely believed to have ‘won the west’ in terms of frontier expansion during the late 1800s. Soon, the baseball crew was playing at Colt Stadium, a temporary playing field for the team’s usage.
However, by 1964, the Colt .45s became the Houston Astros, and their temporary stadium had been retired for the brand new, domed stadium that would come to be known as the Astrodome. Unfortunately for the Astros and the beautiful Astrodome built in their name, the Texan franchise would ping-pong between treading water and risking bankruptcy in the coming decades. Aside from one NL West Division title in 1980 and a few exciting wild card berths in 2004 and 2005, the Astros all but disappeared until the 2010s.
The Rise To Infamy
Following their 70-92 win-loss ratio for the 2014 season, the Houston Astros seemed to have sunken to bottom of the MLB barrel. While pitcher Dallas Keuchel began an excellent season at home in 2015 and managed to set an MLB record, there were other key additions that helped the Astros ascend following their 2014 performance, like Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and Jose Altuve.
The Astros landed a spot in the 2015 playoffs with a wild card game against the Yankees, who they defeated 3-0 before losing the five-game American League Division Series to the Kansas City Royals. But for the Astros, these first competitive seasons seemed like attempting to shake off their arms after a long period of inactivity from the sport.
By the 2016 season, the Astros had picked up steam, along with a few more crucial players. While the 2017 season would see the Astros’ peak performance, they owed of their success to the work that took place behind the scenes, as far back as 2014 when the Astros began revamping their franchise.
In fact, the team owes their success to the deals like those that brought pitcher Justin Verlander and the previous pitcher Dallas Keuchel to the team. Following a devastating flood caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the Houston Astros were able to bring home a World Series Championship to their city. In defeating the LA Dodgers with four games to three, the Houston Astros had accomplished the impossible after over one hundred years later of stagnant play, and with one of the most powerful baseball teams ever assembled.
One major way the Astros built their empire was by hoarding draft picks and money until the right time to acquire a big name or promising young talent came. Since the Astros will be foregoing their draft picks for the 2020 and 2021 season, the rebuild may take a few years. However, this method has proved tried and true, and led the Astros to become the stud of baseball betting in the AL West Division for the 2016-17 season. In fact, since then, other teams like the Chicago Cubs have modeled their own process after the Houston franchise.
Back to the Bottom
Fast forward to late 2019. The Houston Astros have lost their manager and general manager, and the MLB isn’t done doling out punishments for the 2017 Houston Astros cheating scandal. The franchise was proven to have stolen signs from opponent teams that helped them climb their way to the World Series Championship.
The Astros have been fined $5 million and, as aforementioned, have lost their draft picks for the 2020 and 2021 MLB Drafts. It seems it’s time for the team to begin their climb back to the higher ranks of baseball, having moonlighted so briefly at the top of the MLB chain. However, cheating scandal notwithstanding, the Astros do have a strong blueprint to continue to build a strong, honorable team.
It seems the Astros will once again return to a long-game plan of building a star roster that can recruit other top players just by throwing enough money and exclusive terms at top athletes. In turn, this also attracts great coaches with a penchant for vision and allocating responsibilities. In reality, the Astros didn’t need to taint their star team with any sign-stealing tendencies—the franchise finally had what it took to win, and they can build that again.