They were dreadful to start the year. They were 10-20 at one point. Sure, a lot of it was one run losses and blown leads - but when their big offseason acquisition was picking up Josh Hader, and he proceeded to blow game after game early, well it was a continuation of a weird trend. The Astros seems to have been fully corrupted by Jim Crane overly listening to yes men in mainly Astros legend Jeff Bagwell.
This was a bit inevitable, with all the weirdness around old GM James Crick and his weird "firing" after the 2022 World Series win. Granted, by all accounts the Astros replaced him with a super sharp, rising star type in Dana Brown (the Braves old director of scouting - a very fruitful legacy he left...), but then seemed to kneecap Brown with Crane listening to Bagwell. We saw the stupid Abreu contract. Some other stupid reliever contracts (not even counting the trade for Hader). It all culminated in a sour start to the season.
But then a weird thing happened - namely they stopped blowing leads, the Astros great lineup started being great again (mostly Alex Bregman waking up from his now normal April and May slumber) and they crawled their way back to .500 right before the All Star Break. It helped the rest of the AL West was a joke, including the now fully choked-out Mariners, but there was life. It was the weirdest case of dejavu - and a weird look at how going through winning two titles changes your view on things (that and aging 19 years also).
In 2005, the Astros started out 15-30. Famously they were atrocious on offense in that period. They had a great offense in 2004, a lineup that started with Biggio-Beltran-Bagwell-Berkman-Kent. Well, by 2005 Biggio was a year older and washed, Beltran was on the Mets, Bagwell was injured (and basically for good) and Berkman was on the IL for two months due to a torn ACL. The pitching was great, but people like Roger Clemens made a habit of losing games 1-0. But then Berkman came back, Morgan Ensberg stayed hot, Willy Tavares stole a bunch of bases, the pitching remained good and they finised 74-43 and got the Wild Card and rode that momentum all the way to the World Series. That .333 winning percentage a searing memory of realizing it is never over.
Well, this year's .333 winning percentage was the exact opposite (good hitting, pathetic pitching). Weirdly though, the rise back that has been more fun than anything is the pitching staff. Maybe it started when a random named Rionel Blanco who rode his early no-hitter to continued greatness. This pitching staff on paper is not good. Verlander missed a bunch of time. Cristian Javier needs Tommy John. Luis Garcia is recovering from Tommy John, as is Jose Urquidy (basically all the people aside from Framber, who remains excellent, that pitched major innings in the 2022 World Series). Lance McCullers career is basically over. Somehow, someway, the Astros pitching (Spencer Arrighetti's awful start aside) remained good. Be it Rionel Blanco, or Hunter Brown, or Yusei Kikuchi becoming dominant after the trade, the Astros starters somehow have remained competent. I've rarely had more fun wondering about a ptching staff as this.
My life as an Astros fan is weirdly at a peaceful satisfaction. I watched them win two World Series, one of which wasn't tarnished by a cheating scandal! I watched them reach seven straight ALCS's. I realized I was at peace with all of this when they faield to show up for games 6-7 of the ALCS at home last year. I was ok - just happy to keep the streak going, to watch Altuve's incredible home run in Game 5. And this year I watched them sputter, very much the result of shoddy decision making, and I really didn't care all that much. I wrote them very much off - already happy to for once have a drama-free end of October. Well, as Al Pacino once said....
The weirdest part is I actually don't think my love of baseball itself has changed all that much (at least vs say four years ago). The continued exploits of Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Ketel Marte to the brilliance of the youngsters of Jacksons Churiou, Holliday and Merrill. Baseball is still so great, but I love this content version of being a fan of the sport first, and my team second, only because I've already lived a fan lifetime over these past 20 years. The future still isn't all that great, even if this team will likely make the playoffs and who knows, they just may make an eighth straight ALCS yet. Jim Crane remains a weirdo (though I should mention he is the rare Democrat-leaning sports owner billionaire), and his love of Bagwell and relievers and what-not may still lead to disaster. That's a worry for the future however, for now this is a perfect little moment to just love the weirdness of a roller-coaster that the 2024 Astros have been.
