Houston, We Have Lift Off

Matthew Kress

As the trade deadline quickly approaches, the first of many trade deadline acquisitions was made Thursday as Scott Kazmir was sent to the Houston Astros for a bevy of prospects, thus setting the Astros into a win now mode. But what seems like the new bad boys of the AL West has actually been an extremely calculated process. Jeff Lunhow first came to the baseball front office forefront as the director of scouting for the Saint Louis Cardinals. Over his nine years in the Cardinals organization baseball, fans came to know that the Cardinals have an eye for young talent. Their track record is impressive with not just keen first round selections but also with a track record for finding multiple diamonds in the rough. In the expansive multiple day event known as the MLB Draft, Lunhow and his team proved to be draft wizards by drafting the likes of Matt Carpenter (TCU, 13th round), Matt Adams (DII Slippery Rock University, 23rd round) in the late rounds and turning them into above average major leaguers. So one might ask how he turned the lifeless Astros around from chumps to champs? Well fasten your seatbelts for the true money ball story.


Step 1: Rebrand

The Houston Astros were a team of the past when Jeff Lunhow took over the club in 2011. If you looked into their deep future you could see the likes of Nolan Ryan, JR Richards, and even Mike Scott leading the Astros in winning ways. Fast-forward to the mid-2000’s and all that can be seen is a much younger Brad Lidge letting up a home run to Albert Pujols in the NLCS.

Not exactly an illustrious past for the meddling ‘Stros. So the Astros did what any other company does after a bad breakup. It rebrands. I know, I know. Crazy, right? How does a logo change the on-field product? Hear me out. Look at the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays - a team with similar losing history that was changed in a blink of an eye. Drop the devil and pick a new color scheme and next thing you know you have a contender.

1997-2007

2008- Present

Keep it simple, stupid. People love bright colors, a new logo, and new gear and that’s just what they did.

2000-2012

2013- Present

I’ll be completely honest here… Was it needed? No, not in my opinion. I think the 2000-2012 logos are some of the best in baseball

But it’s all about getting the consumers excited about the new product. Buzz generates profit and profit generates talent. Which leads me to the more time consuming part: Getting good players.

Step 2: Getting the players.

Look at the 2012 starting lineup for the Houston Astros.

CF Jordan Schafer
2B Jose Altuve
LF JD Martinez
1B Carlos Lee
RF Brian Bogusevic
3B Chris Johnson
C Jason Castro
SS Marwin Gonzalez
P Wandy Rodriguez

There is only one truly noteworthy player on this team in Altuve. The rest are either scrubs or small pieces on other inept teams. That’s why they finished 55-107 that year and even worse the next year at 51-111. But as only true current Sixers fans would know, tanking pays off. With the back-to-back losing seasons, Jeff Lunhow got to do what he does best which is scout and develop. Thus, he drafted the likes of Carlos Correa (2012), Mark Appel (2013), as well as other big league regulars like George Springer (2011 11th pick), Preston Tucker (2012 7th rounder), and Lance McCullers (2012 41ST pick), while also taking flyers on others organizations trash as well as stealing good younger players in trades i.e. Jon Singleton (Phillies) Collin McHugh (Mets), Jed Lowrie (Red Sox, A’s), Chris Carter (A’s), and Evan Gattis (Atlanta). Lastly, he relied on organizational depth to thrust the “future” into the present with the likes of Dallas Keuchel and Jose Altuve. Once a franchise with no prospects on the horizon has suddenly turned into modern day Moneyball team thanks to the work of Lunhow. It’s simple; as the Big Leagues goes through an era of young superstars, go look for potential young superstars. Pounce on cheap young talent and allow them to grow with a young nucleus. Then scoop these players at reduced cost later like Jose Altuve (4yrs, 12.5M) and Dallas Keuchel (1yr, 525K, arbitration eligible 2016). Use cheap, effective young players to allow Houston to become contenders for the foreseeable future.

Houston, we have lift off.