George Will in his book about baseball wrote that baseball is a game of frustration where even the best hitter only hits successfully 40% of the time. Any Stros (Houston fan) older than 10 most of their lives should know this. This is why I never took the latest Stros run for granted. There's been far far more times in my lifetime I've seen Houston teams struggle and it wasn't that long ago the Stros had multiple 100 loss seasons. This doesn't mean that we should just pack it in for this season. This is still a very talented team that is struggling with a new manager and a new system. Many of us still remember when the Chron figuratively buried the Stros in June 2004 only for them to go to their first WS in October that year. Main point is that we should all remember that baseball is a game of frustration along with the life of being a Houston fan. Always enjoy the good times but don't punch too many screens during the bad times.
I understand that nothing in life, or even life itself, is promised. I also understand that baseball is a sport where even the best teams lose 35% of their games and the worst win 35%. That said, talent will rise. If you look over the history of baseball, there is an explanation for any team that over achieves or under achieves. Maybe they had young talent that gelled sooner than expected or players ended up being more talented than scouts thought. Maybe they had unexpected aging or injuries take talent away. But talent is always the common denominator. When I look back at the history of Astros baseball, the majority of the non-competitive teams were lacking in talent, or the talent was too young or too old. This team has plenty of talent still in its prime but the majority of the pitching talent is hurt. If they get enough of it back soon enough, they will be fine. If not then it will get interesting, as many guys are getting close to FA and/or the end if their primes so just looking forward to 2025 may not be a good option.
Last 5 years alone. 3 WS out of 5, winning 1 and was 1 win away from another. The 2 times we didn't make the WS we were both 1 win away from it. By far one of the best run in modern baseball history. Sadly the WS will elude us for some time now as the league catches up and the Astros retool. I never liked our pitchers anyhow for long term, they definitely over-achieved the last few years.
We had a good run unfortunately it has reached its end. Nothing to be ashamed of. We were the golden boys of baseball for almost 10 years. I’m personally blessed I was able to witness it first hand. With that said this team has some big decisions ahead. Bregman, Tucker, Framber… our minor league system is depleted. Sadly I sense a fire sale is on the horizon to replenish our farm. Let’s just hope the rebuild doesn’t last forever.
