The big league team has lost to the Space Cowboys in the last 18 months... https://www.milb.com/news/clutch-hitting-give-space-cowboys-3-1-win-over-astros
Because, despite the results since he has been gone, this team is better with him and eventually baseball will happen and some bounces will not go the Astros' way. They can't just assume they will keep winning with half the roster just up from AAA. And I would rather they step on the throats of The rest of the division, and not risk letting them recover and cut into the division lead.
The Stros are doing pretty good considering their team is winning despite using players from one of the worst rated farm systems in MLB. Maybe somebody needs to reevaluate how they're grading teams farm systems.
Farm system is rated by how much money is spent on it, not necessarily by how good the talent is. I guess most will say you spend more money on better talent, but it’s all a guessing game when it comes to drafting and international scouting.
Who on this team that is performing well wasn't acquired via trade, FA, and wasn't an Astro or on the Astros farm prior to 2020? Is Colton Gordon the best current player added to the organization after Luhnow through the draft or IFA? The Astros organization was completely stacked after Luhnow left. The Astros are good to great because they've had great MLB players, only needed to fill in holes from the minors, and didn't trade many of the guys away except when really needed. The Astros Farm system is weak and has been for a while. Every farm produces some talent. Astros haven't been as bad as estimates, but they have not been strong for a while. I'm just thankful other teams complained about the Astros cheating. It could be just a coincidence, but I find it funny that when MLB implemented anti cheating measures, the Astros suddenly had a plethora of Luhnow's pitchers (majors and prospects) regress less than other teams.
PS I don't count developmental staff as the farm. The Astros are obviously the best or near it at developing prospects. The Astros get more out of their prospects than they should, but the Astros just don't start with as good of prospects as other teams because they've been good so long and got caught cheating losing some picks. If the Astros started with better players from the draft, they would develop better players than they do.
2025: Colton Gordon, Ryan Guston 2024: Spencer Arrighetti 2023: Yainer Diaz, Ronel Blanco, JP France 2022: Jeremy Pena, Hunter Brown 2021: Bryan Abreu The Astros system gets picked on a lot, and there are areas deserving of criticism - but they find a way to get major contributions from their farm system every year. The farm system has overall done exactly what it is supposed to do.
