1998 Houston Astros - Best Team to Never Make a World Series?

I forget, who were the Astros starting pitchers in 1998 again?

Randy Johnson
Jose Lima
??
??
??

 

Mike Hampton
Shane Reynolds
Sean Bergman
Pete Schourek

 

I was a little kid when the Rockets lost to the Celtics in the finals, but its funny when the team you rooting for loses in the championship round. Its like people don't want to talk about the Astros losing in the world series. Its like it never happened. I'm still wondering how we just got destroyed by the white sox. I know they got hot at the right time but damn, that team we had was stacked.

 

Not really. The pitching was fantastic, but it was in large part due to the NL. The WS had really good pitching in the American League. Also, the Astros offense was hardly awesome. Three regulars on the team with an OBP over .350 is pretty bad.

 

I just don't understand how they couldn't at least won two games. I mean look at all the white sox players that were on that team. Most of them have fizzled and world series mvp that year isn't even in the league!!!

 

I'm still thinking about the MLB making us open the roof!

 

Not making it in 98 is evened out by making it in 2005.

2005 Houston Astros - Worst Team to make a World Series? (really just proving that pitching means everything in baseball...)

 

2004 as our year. That was the team. It had the stacked line up, deep pitching staff, and an absolute hammer in the pen. 2004 hurts me more than any of the other Astros teams.

I was really emotionally invested in 1986, but I think that had alot to do with the fact that I was an 10 year old kid who was falling in love with baseball and baseball cards. 2004 was the year I felt that the Astros had the team to win the World Series. After 36-10 and Beltran, that season should have ended with a parade.

 

We had the following guys as starting pitchers:
Oswalt, Clemens, Brandon Backe and Pete Munro (not exactly deep).

We had Lidge in the bullpen, but who did we have to get it to him.... Dan Miceli and Chad Harville.

Sure we had Kent, Beltran and Berkman all having good years... but we also had an aging Bagwell/Biggio, an inconsistent Ensberg, and the Ausmus/Everet black hole (not exactly stacked).

And even if we beat the Cardinals (who had just as good of a lineup and pitching staff), It would have been very tough to beat the Red Sox that year (who had both a stacked lineup AND a deep pitching staff... moreso than Houston), who were even HOTTER than our 36-10 by beating the Yankees 4 straight.

 

The pitching staff you mentioned is what we had at the end of the season. I will concede that point. But the staff was Oswalt, Pettitte, Clemens, Backe, & Munro. You forgot about Qualls & Wheeler. They were the middle relief.

I think you underestimate the depth of the lineup. 2004, Bagwell batted sixth and still belted 27 homers. There was power in the first 6 spots in the lineup. I agree, that the Red Sox were on a roll, but I cant help but think that squad, could have beaten those Red Sox, especially with Pettitte. Pettitte shutting it down in August was the biggest reason in my opinion that kept the Astros from winning the World Series.

It is amazing that 6 years have passed since that season. Time flies.

 

I actually think the 2005 Astros were a better team than the 2006 Cardinals that won the WS.

 

I couldnt agree more. That 2006 Cardinals team was so lucky. They got on such a roll at the end. Everyone now forgets how that team was losing every night to allow the Astros right back in the race. I still have my NL tiebraker tickets on my desk. Oswalt was on schedule to pitch and MMP would have been rocking had there been a tie breaker game. Too bad we lost 2 out of 3 to the Braves to end our season.