Houston Astros

[Marshall Bennett]

Sitting on a 6 game winning streak, including a 4 game sweep of the Angels and their 148 million dollar payroll in their own ballpark.
I'm not suggesting the Astros are a good ball club, they're not, but it goes to show that a very young team can get hot and beat the best of them. Emotions and will play a large part with young professionals in any sport, and this is a good example.

[Valuist]

The Astros became the first MLB team in history (at least since there have been moneylines on games) who were underdogs of at least +135 in 5 straight games and won them all. There's been over 900 instances of teams who qualified, but the Astros are the only one to win all five games.

[horses4courses]

The Astros, at the moment, are a good example.
The Athletics, however, are an even better one.

A playoff team last year losing narrowly to Detroit, who got hot as a pistol in September,
have managed to sustain that run - and with one of the lowest salary levels in MLB.

Currently, they are a game and a half back of Texas in the AL West, and 9-1 in their last ten games. The Angels are close to 10 games behind the A's with a salary bill more than twice than what Oakland pays out to it's players.

It goes to show that marquee players don't guarantee titles.
The chemistry of creating a winning baseball franchise is more complex than shelling out big bucks.
Having a shrewd GM is way undervalued.

[Valuist]

Another example besides Anaheim, in a negative direction, is Toronto. They brought a bunch of new players in, and preseason expectations were high (at least by the media). Signing a bunch of free agents doesn't seem to work very often.

[cj's dad]

3 coming up vs. the O's. Check back Friday.

[wiffleball whizz]

Houston and Miami will be great teams to bet on after the all star break.....while the big teams are falling apart after hopes of a post season berth are dashed these 2 teams with prospects will be playing there asses off!!! Imagine if u parlayed the marlins and Astros fri sat and Sunday u would have so much Money right now u wouldn't know what to do with it all!!!!!

[Ocala Mike]

It goes to show that marquee players don't guarantee titles.
The chemistry of creating a winning baseball franchise is more complex than shelling out big bucks.
Having a shrewd GM is way undervalued.



Reminds me that "Moneyball" has been getting lots of play on one of the movie channels lately.

[wiffleball whizz]

On the other hand are the marlins of Miami the worst team in the history of baseball? And per capita are the marlins the greatest team is baseball history from the time they been around?

[wiffleball whizz]

On the other hand are the marlins of Miami the worst team in the history of baseball? And per capita are the marlins the greatest team is baseball history from the time they been around?

Actually I meant the best per capita behind the Yankees...

And this Houston team since 1990 when I was about 10 and had a little clue about baseball how bad are they? Worse then the expansion mariners or expansion Tampa bay?

I remember some bad pirate teams post bonds and van slyke....

That's the thing about baseball there is no luck involved....over 162 games the cream rises to the top......

[Valuist]

That's the thing about baseball there is no luck involved....over 162 games the cream rises to the top......

Certainly less than other sports, but I don't think I'd say no luck was ever involved. What about injuries? What about a huge disparity in one run games? Certainly skill (mostly bullpen) plays a role in the one run games but one can't expect to continuously come up on the right side of close contests.

[magwell]

On the other hand are the marlins of Miami the worst team in the history of baseball? And per capita are the marlins the greatest team is baseball history from the time they been around? They have won 2 world series already, then they disband the teams.....the city wont support them, so the owners bail out even with a nice new stadium its sad really, (I've been a Marlin fan from the start) this is a aaa team at best now, they have become a farm system for other teams......

[wiffleball whizz]

They have won 2 world series already, then they disband the teams.....the city wont support them, so the owners bail out even with a nice new stadium its sad really, (I've been a Marlin fan from the start) this is a aaa team at best now, they have become a farm system for other teams......

Exactly.....the team is there own worst enemy and is usually the definition of the term "fire sale"....look at the talent this team has produced through the years.....

The only other team I can think of that's produced such great home grown talent was the expos back in the day....that was some farm system they had

[wiffleball whizz]

Certainly less than other sports, but I don't think I'd say no luck was ever involved. What about injuries? What about a huge disparity in one run games? Certainly skill (mostly bullpen) plays a role in the one run games but one can't expect to continuously come up on the right side of close contests.

Agree the injury bug is an important factor....but stricktly from a non intangible factors baseball makes u earn every trip to the post season...

Although I do think winning divisions was always something that disproved the theory....there's some bad divisions through the years and a decent team was able to play some bad teams a lot of times in the years....

Like the braves used to beat up on the bad met expo and phillies teams year in and year out

Then u had teams like the the cardinals who were able to feast on bad cub pirate and red teams in past years....I know I'm missing some easy ones

I mean u could always bet the ranch on the yanks to win the division they had to many games against terrible oriole and blue jay and rays teams....and there was no way Boston was good enough yet.....u could have laid 5/1 and just wait by the bank.....that's why I was never a big fan of division winners getting automatic berths in post season.....way to many bad teams in certain divisions that refused tO spend money

[Striker]

This story just came out within the past 24 hours. Not too bad for one of the worst teams in baseball.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2013/08/26/2013-houston-astros-baseballs-worst-team-is-most-profitable-in-history/

Owner and Team President say numbers are wrong, but when your highest paid player only makes $1.15 million, and payroll is currently at $13 million, I would tend to believe the Forbes article is close to being accurate. Team President's comments are below.


http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2013/08/26/report-astros-on-track-to-make-99-million-this-season/

[cj]

The AAA team here in OKC for the Astros has run away with the division. I'm not sure they aren't better than the parent club.

[Striker]

The AAA team here in OKC for the Astros has run away with the division. I'm not sure they aren't better than the parent club.
George Springer, only 23, is supposed to be a star in the making for the Astros, especially if he cuts down on his strikeouts. 1st minor leaguer to join the 30-30 club since 2009.

[Marshall Bennett]

Heard on local news this morning Astros lead most teams in dollar profit. Although attendance is not great, only one player on their roster makes over $1,000,000 a year. I did not know this and am amazed even with the Astros that salaries are that low. Not sure, but believe minimum pay is around 500K for the league. All things considered, they're not in fact playing that bad after all. :D

[Stillriledup]

Stros currently 44-88, they need to go 16-14 the rest of the way to acquire 60 wins. Not looking too good for them.