When the Houston Astros lost 107 games last year, baseball fans couldn’t help but wonder how much worse things could get for a team in Major League Baseball. 40 games into the 2013 season, the Astros find themselves with a 10-30 record and on pace to lose more games in a season than any team ever has in baseball history. They had a new owner but actually did worse than they did the previous year. It may seem crazy but losing that many games actually makes a lot of sense.
First and foremost, there’s not many owners in professional sports who don’t care about winning or losing. It’s their competitive nature that drove them to owning a sports team and nobody wants to be embarassed. So when Jim Crane bought the Astros in the fall of 2011, fans were hoping he’d invest enough money to turn the franchise around. Instead, the Astros posted the worst record in franchise history.
It’s easy to think that Crane has no clue what he’s doing, but if you take a closer look, he’s giving the Astros the best chance to be successful within a few years. One thing a lot of people may not realize is that baseball players aren’t exactly lining up to play for the Astros. Not only has it been a while since they’ve been competitive, but they don’t have the reputation of spending big money to lure top-free agents to Houston. Simply put, the Astros would have to overpay in order to acquire quality players which makes little to no sense for them.
Now if the Astros were a playoff-contending team, one would question why they would choose to cut their payroll. The fact of the matter is the Astros aren’t one or two players away from making the playoffs, it’s more like six or seven. When you’re that far away from contention, it makes sense to rebuild your team by acquiring a lot of young quality players. Traditionally teams do that by either making trades or making good decisions in the draft. The Astros are doing it by losing.
Am I implying that the Astros are losing on purpose? Far from it. There is no reason to doubt the effort of any player on the Astros, it’s just that their total talent lacks significantly in comparison to any other team in baseball. The good news for the Astros is that by finishing the year with the worst record in baseball (which they are more than likely to do), they’ll not only get the first overall pick in the 2013 draft, but also have higher picks in subsequent rounds. If they continue their losing ways for the next few years, they’ll be able to acquire some of the most talented baseball players coming out of high school and college.
When you look at some of the 1st overall picks in the last 15 years or so, you’ll notice a lot of familiar names such as Josh Hamilton, Adrian Gonzalez, Joe Mauer, Justin Upton, David Price, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. It’s an impressive list of MVPs, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year winners.
If the Astros can acquire a few players with as much talent as any of those guys plus add in a few quality veterans, there’s no reason to think they won’t be competing for the playoffs within the next five years. Sound impossible? The Washington Nationals joined Major League Baseball in 2005 and found themselves in last place in their division. In the five seasons that followed, the Nationals never finished higher than 4th place in their division. At that point the rebuilding process was finally over. In their sixth year the Nationals only improved to third place in the NL East, but in their 7th season they finished with the best record in all of baseball.
Does this mean the Astros are going to win the World Series in 2020? It’s hard to know for sure, but history does have a funny way of repeating itself.
