Having spent 10 years of my life in the Houston area, I can still lay claim to being something of an Astros fan. Hell, I still think that Minute Maid Park is the best stadium in baseball (I haven’t been to Target Field yet), but what do I know? In those 10 years in Houston, I saw a lot of mediocrity take the field. What kept fans hopeful was the magical 2005 season, when the Astros won the National League pennant and went to the World Series. Sure, the Astros got their butts handed to them by the Chicago White Sox, but Astros fans are a forgiving and long-suffering lot. Hey, if you had to spend years watching baseball games in the concrete mausoleum locals call the Astrodome, you’d know what I mean. Even with that in mind, though, what they’re being subjected to now is beyond ridiculous.
Just prior to Saturday’s trade deadline, the Astros traded the two most recognizable players on their roster- Roy Oswalt (to the Phillies) and Lance Berkman (to the Yankees). What Oswalt and Berkman left behind is a roster populated with young players of questionable talent and a few washed up veterans (et tu, Carlos Lee?). Astros fans are now reduced to paying major league prices to see a decent AAA team compete with Pittsburgh for last place in the NL Central Division. My, how things have changed in five years, eh?
You have to know that the Astros are in deep doo-doo when the “ace” of their pitching staff is Brett Myers, who’s best known for beating his wife. Prosecutors in Boston dropped the charges when his wife stated that she didn’t want him prosecuted for hitting her. Not exactly who you’d want as the face of the franchise, eh? The Astros used to be a family show, a talented team populated with players of unquestioned character and skill. Now? Well, d’ya think they’re missing Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell??
What happened to the Astros is a cautionary tale about what can happen to a team when management mortgages the future and decimates their farm system in order to chase a championship in the present. Yes, Houston made it to the World Series in 2005. What they faced after that was a barren farm system, aging players with huge contracts that they couldn’t unload, and little hope of building up the team via trades. For the past five years, the decline has been precipitous, rapid, and tough to take. Astros fans have continued paying major league prices for a team that can no longer argue that they’re putting a major league product on the field. This year’s marketing slogan should have been “THANK GOD FOR PITTSBURGH!!” Now there’s some truth in advertising.
If Astros management wsd serious about turning things around, they could start by looking north to my Minnesota Twins. Say what you will, but the Twins do things the right way- they develop players and live within their means. The Astros? Well, they’re at the opposite end of that spectrum…and it appears that things are unlikely to change any time soon. You can bet that they’ll still be charging major league prices. They’ll claim to be a “small market” team…if such a claim can credibly be made in the country’s fourth-largest city. Meanwhile, the mediocrity will continue unabated…and Astros fans will continue to wonder when their faith will be rewarded.
