17. Houston Astros AL WEST FPR RANK: 3 The bar graphs reflect the average points given by the voters for each category. The Overview General manager Jeff Luhnow completely tore down this club to build it back up, and it appears they may have finally bottomed out, and some of the products of their recent drafts, such as outfielder George Springer, should hit the majors this year. That said, much of their top talent, such as shortstop Carlos Correa, is still a year or two away, and it is hard to foresee playoff contention before 2016, at the earliest. -- Buster Olney The Dilemma The Astros have arguably the best farm system in baseball and now they must decide when to promote some of those players to the big leagues and start their arbitration and free agency clocks. The timing will be a critical because they must figure out when they can win, when the players are major-league ready and how long they'll be able to keep the young nucleus together. -- Jim Bowden Make-or-break year (Law's top 10 Astros prospects) The Astros took outfielder Ravel Santana in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft from the Yankees, so they don't have to return him if he doesn't play well, but after missing all of 2013 and fighting injuries the last two years, he has to have a good 2014 at age 21 to factor into the Astros' plans, especially as their 40-man situation gets increasingly crowded. -- Keith Law http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10584570/mlb-future-power-rankings-2014 A's were 16th with 47.5 Rangers were 4th with 69.4
What is interesting is, a couple of years ago the Astros would have been very equal with the Rangers in terms of finance. I don't know if that relates to CSN-H, or their current payroll.
Probably relates to a little of everything... including an owner who likely will not operate this team at a loss if the TV deal isn't there.
Honestly... I wonder how much they put into this, though. I mean, we have yet to have an off season where we have needed to spend money to keep players or to really spend to compete when needed. A TV deal will eventually (5 years max... right?) be in place, and we will have seen the front office do what they need to do by then. I don't think we should give ESPN too much credit when it comes to researching things like this.
such a joke. astros should be way higher than 17. top farm system and an owner whos saving his $$ to spend until we have a product worth spending on? book it.
I guess... its all conjecture at this point. If Crane is indeed making $$$ like crazy (whether it be now, or 5 years from now), and feels the need to keep most of the profits, that's his decision. All ESPN can say is right now, the Astros appear to be "cash poor"... whether its due to a poor owner, a nonexistent TV deal, terrible attendance, or very little marketing value... it all adds up to a team that isn't financially ready to compete with anybody. They're already presuming that they will not be in position to keep any of the prospects when they become free agents... and when they're nickle/diming them to delay their start times, I wouldn't call that a stretch.
Agreed... but only in the present. I think it would be unfair for them to assume that this will continue into the future especially when you consider this city back when we were decent. '04-'07 produced 3 3million fan seasons (ironically, '05 did not) and with the improvements being made to the down town area (additional up scale high rises) and things of that nature, I think that a .500+ winning team will help us return to at least 2.6-2.7 a year. Maybe I am going on a tangent, but I don't think that judging just the present is a fair way for ESPN to base how we will do in the future.
We will see... A lot of things went "right" for those 04-07 teams. MMP was still relatively new (and drew 3 million fans by itself in 2000, and the Astros had a "bad" team that year). They got a lot more hype from signing Clemens/Pettite... hype that the home-grown prospects by themselves would not have been able to muster (fans weren't coming out just to see Berkman/Oswalt). They were a winning team. And lastly, they got fans in 2007 in large part due to Biggio's chase for 3000. And after it was all said and done, those fans were supporting a team that had been a "winning" one since 1997. I do think Houston will support a winning team... but it may take more than just "being good" again after the 3-5 horrific seasons that they've had (and have yet to come). Watching an Astros game is still this cities most affordable major sport activity, and frankly MMP is pound-for-pound the "best"/most fan-friendly venue that Houston has. I just don't think that by itself, combined with a simply "good" team, will be enough. Remember, this is the LONGEST stretch of sucktitude for a Houston team that will not be getting a new stadium any time soon in order to falsely inflate the attendance numbers.
Agreed for the most part. The affordability is very true, and should help bring fans back to the part as opposed to just going to a few games a year. That 2000 team is an outlier, but it is also worth remembering that we were coming off 3 division titles on top of having a new stadium. As for the middle years, I had forgotten how much hype Clemens and Pettite mustered. Those were must see games. As for Oswalt, I actually remember him being someone people would pay to see and go out of their way to do so. Maybe those were just the fans around me, but people loved seeing him breeze through games and give us the best chance to win. That being said, I think being "good" will bring us back to respectability when it comes to attendance. I think .500+ in our city will bring more fans than Pittsburgh currently does (only mentioned due to their playoff success following terrible years), but you are right about free agents. Homegrown talent is what makes it worth seeing a team win, but a big free agent signing just brings hype that can't be beat sometimes.
Agreed. I edited my post to include them being largely a "winning" team ending out the dome that also helped boost the attendance numbers that were already inflated due to it being a new ballpark. Actually, Pittsburgh was DYING to support a winning team, and their fans were every bit as rabid down the stretch (and in the playoffs) last year as the 2004/2005 playoff crowds at MMP were. Houston's fair-weatherness will be put to the test with this team once it becomes good. Right now, the Astros barely register as a blip on the social consciousness meter throughout the city.... and I'd have to venture its an all-time low in interest for almost any Houston sports team, ever.
I knew that there is a good number of people in Pittsburgh are willing to support the team, but they were 15th in stadium capacity and 19th in people drawn to games (in one of baseball's best stadiums in my opinion). Maybe this year will be a better litmus test. As for Houston, I agree. We are as fair weather as they come. It officially seems we are a football city, and it is worth remember that the Texans were just horrible during the Astros run (or we didn't have a team at all). I wonder if the Texan success,measured in attendance, hurts (people getting invested in one team, though during a different time of the year) or helps (people getting Houston fever and feeling the need to go to all things Houston).
Houston's a big enough city to have enough football-only fans to support the Texans, along with enough baseball-only fans to support the Astros. But frankly, a lot of people support both... and with football having games only one day/week, and with the majority of baseball season not overlapping with football season, there's plenty of enough opportunity for both to get ample support. Also, it will take far more losing from the Texans to get to where fans are as "apathetic" towards them as they are towards the Astros. Frankly, I feel people talk MORE about the Texans when they are losing... vs. a winning team that's running on all cylinders and can't do any wrong.
Bingo. It should be noted that a lot of people bought Texans tickets early when they thought they'd be a powerhouse in 2013. The real test would be 3-4 years of trash from this point on. I'm pretty sure attendance would take a large hit there. Now, sports media can't stop talking about football, and sports radio like 610 can't figure out there's something called baseball season, but these are the same people so focused on the Texans that even a top 25 college football team in Houston can't pick-up conversation. However, this doesn't translate to fan support.
