The Astros made the playoffs: It’s not a time to complain

In the words of guitarist Joe Walsh in the classic “Life’s Been Good to Me”

“I have a mansion, forget the price. Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice…. I make hit records, my fans they can’t wait. They write me letters, tell me I’m great….. Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through. (Everybody say I’m cool) (He’s cool).
I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do…Life’s been good to me so far.”

It would be easy to start complaining about the Astros, who likely will be in and out of the playoffs quickly.

But I am a really big-time OG fan, going all the way back to when my family moved to Houston in 1966.

Are you upset that the Astros snuck into the playoffs despite their 81-81 record – exactly .500 and a game worse than the previous worst record for a playoff team? I understand the upset, but it’s not the time.

Going back to the Colt .45s start to the franchise, it was eight long seasons before the Astros even touched that .500 record in 1969. And that team ended up 5 out of 6 teams in the NL West and 12 games out of first place.

It was not until their 19^th season that the Astros finally made the playoffs in the magical but eventually bitter 1980 season.

As we covered before, it was not until their 43^rd season (2004) that the Astros won a playoff series and the 44^th season (2005) brought their first World Series appearance.

It was not until their 56^th season (2017) that they would finally win a World Series and their 61^st season (2022) that they won a championship that was not tainted in the eyes of the world.

After all the pain and time it took to reach the .500 mark and then eventually make the playoffs in the first place I cannot turn my back on the Astros.

Looking back at the season, we saw some good and some very bad play, but we saw resiliency.

• They overcame a 20-31 start to the season.
• They overcame having 19 different players start games for them (OK – 3 or 4 of those were “openers” – but still)
• Their starting rotation at the beginning of the season was Hunter Brown, Mike Burrows, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, and Lance McCullers Jr.. Burrows, Imai, and McCullers pitched so poorly they were removed from the rotation, with McCullers being traded away for a bucket of balls. Brown only made two starts before he was on the IL for 2-1/2 months. Javier made 3 starts before he hit the IL and did not return for 3 months and did not return to the starting rotation for another month after that.
• Their outfield was a rotating mess of underachievement. Cam Smith, Dalton Varsho, Jake Meyers, Taylor Trammell, Brice Matthews, Lamonte Wade Jr., Joey Loperfido, Zach Dezenzo, Zach Cole and what seemed like every OF cut lose from every organization all hit under .220 BA and under .700 OPS with most of them way below that number.
• Not counting the COVID year, Jose Altuve had his worst hitting year since his rookie season and was a candidate for the Leaden Glove Awards. His old playoff buddy, Carlos Correa played well until he tore a tendon in his ankle in early May and never returned despite working his tail off to make it back.
• The Astros had to overcome playing the first two months of the season without the best closer in the game, Josh Hader, and had to live with Bryan Abreu pitching like he psychologically could not take Hader’s spot.
• They went through so many pitchers during the season who either were released, sent down or sent elsewhere, it looks insane when you compile the list. Along with Burrows, Imai, and McCullers mentioned before, they ran through Spencer Arrighetti, Kai-Wei Teng, Ronel Blanco, Ryan Weiss, Colton Gordon, Nate Pearson, Jason Alexander, Cody Bolton, Jayden Murray, J.P. France, Christian Roa, and Roddery Munoz. (Note – Blanco did return to throw two scoreless innings in the finale.)
• The Astros won the division despite Peter Lambert leading the team with 8 wins – a number that was unchanged for the last 2 months+ of the season.

But the Astros did climb back into the race, due to the fact that nobody was turning this into much of a race. It felt like if they could ever get back to .500 they would have a shot. No one thought that .500 would win it, but that is what happened.

The Astros won it because….

• They beat the Texas Rangers in 9 of their 13 games, which earned them the tiebreaker and I believe gave them a psychological edge down the stretch even if they did not end up in a tie.
• The trio at the top of the lineup, Jeremy Pena, Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes were the best run producers in the American League. They were all critical to the success of the offense.
• A bit of a renaissance by Yainer Diaz, who was tremendous down the stretch helped them stretch the lineup.
• Starting pitching assistance came from all sorts of odd places. Peter Lambert? Hayden Wesneski coming back from TJ surgery? Ethan Pecko?
• Tremendous bullpen assistance from Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu (after Hader returned), Steven Okert, and a special season from A.J. Blubaugh who led the majors in innings from the bullpen. Miguel Ullola turned into a critical cog down the stretch.
• Christian Walker, after starting strong, and collapsing for long stretches, came alive the last week of the season.
• The injury of Dalton Varsho heading into the last week of the season may have been the luckiest break of the season. The Astros brought back young Lucas Spence, who had shown nothing that would make you believe he was a difference maker. Well, a double, triple, four home runs and nine RBIs later and Spence helped the Astros win 3 of 4 in West Sacramento and the AL West.

In the end the Astros somehow survived one of the most challenging regular seasons in their history and will live to play another day.