The Astros are going to the World Series.
Let that sink in for just a minute.
The Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees 4-0 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night, catapulting them into the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This is a franchise that as recently as 2014 had the #1 pick in the MLB Draft (which they used on Cathedral Catholic High School lefty Brady Aiken but a deal was never reached). The Astros were going nowhere so they tore the whole thing down to the studs and rebuilt.
Yes, Padres fans, like the 2015 Royals this year’s Astros give reason to hope.
The Friars are following the same blueprint as Houston and Kansas City did. They sold off high-priced veterans to stock the system with talent then let all those kids battle to see who was going to make it to the top. Instead of simply assuming the top prospects would rise to The Show, Houston made the kids fight for it whether they were picked in the 1st round or the 50th.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17
The Astros signed the right international players and drafted the right guys and all of a sudden they have the best team in the American League. Oh, and a whole lot of luck was involved, too. The first piece was added a decade ago when Houston threw $15,000 at a scrappy Venezuelan kid named Jose Altuve that they had already turned away once.
The 5-foot-6 (with cleats on) infielder turned into a perennial MVP candidate and along the way set the tone for the entire organization. Right after that the ‘Stros started hitting home runs in June. How about this run of Draft picks:
2008 – Dallas Keuchel (7th round)
2011 – OF George Springer (1st round)
2012 – SS Carlos Correa (1st round); P Lance McCullers (1st round)
2015 – 3B Alex Bregman (1st round)
All of those guys are now key cogs for a Pennant winner. The success this team had and the depth of the system allowed them to go out and get a guy like Justin Verlander, who allowed 1 run in 16.0 ALCS innings. Ditto the Royals in 2015, who added Johnny Cueto for the stretch run to a World Series title.
Now we see if the Padres can have the same kind of success. General Manager A.J. Preller has re-stocked the system with more talent than the Padres have seen in any decade, let alone any two year stretch. He’s taking the same steps that two of the last three AL Champs have executed.
That is, of course, no guarantee that it will work in San Diego. You’ve heard it said plenty of times before that scouting is an inexact science. But Preller has a couple of guys in the mix that you may not know about who will be keeping a very close eye on the Astros and the Dodgers when the World Series starts on Tuesday, and not just because they’re baseball fans.
These guys helped build the best teams in baseball.
David Post is one of the first hires Preller made after taking over in 2014. Post spent 2007 through 2014 with … the Houston Astros. He had a hand in adding all that talent and for the last three years he’s been helping do the same thing with the Padres.
One of the other early additions was Logan White, who came over from the Dodgers. He’s the one most responsible for drafting and signing All-Stars Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger.
That’s one of the things that a lot of people don’t realize. Before the Padres started trying to build a team that can win like the Astros they built a team of stouts that has built teams like the Astros.
So Friar Faithful, enjoy this year’s Fall Classic. You could very well be getting a preview of what to expect at Petco Park in a few years.
