Was just thinking that before 2017 how many of us who grew up as Stros would consider a season without the Stros winning the WS a bust.
My take 1) Every team cheated to some extent. Some more than others. What people call cheating has happened for decades and was not cheating until the commissioner sent the letter in 2017 stating it was cheating. 2) the Astros likely were on the extreme end of this and crossed the line with technology and innovation based on their employees and philosophy. 3) The MLB and by extension Manfred's job is to keep/regain as much popularity of the game as they can. This means that they can not afford another league wide scandal and must promote the big market teams. Right or wrong this is reality. 4) When Fiers publicly turned on the Astros and reported the cheating, MLB was forced to acknowledge it and investigate it. 5) the League needed to publicly acknowledge what they found ( too much was known) about the Astros while simultaneously trying to bury as much as they could about all other teams to avoid the public understanding that it is league wide. 6) the Players gave every other team's players all the evidence they needed to shut up. Once they saw how the Astros players were treated they were not going to say anything, even with immunity. 7) no testimony from players of other teams means the league had the plausible deniability it needed to avoid naming them cheaters and dishing out major punishments to them. Exactly the result they NEEDED and prayed for. 8) people are mostly sheep and prefer just believing the Astros did something terrible ( which they did) but also alone ( which they most certainly did not) rather than thinking or researching for themselves. 9) the Media continue to fan the flames because it guarantees more eyeballs and ears on whatever they are peddling
I don't know if you can specify it like that, but it is hard to think of the season being a failure of we don't win the world series. The dodgers have been the best team in baseball. The Mets have DeGrom & Scherzer. We have to make the ALCS and we can't lose in less than 7 to anybody except the dodgers. My perfect scenario is getting revenge on the Braves.
