Similar models
Time will tell how great they are, but the Astros have been built in a fashion similar to the last Yankee dynasty.
You cannot compare 27 world championships with one. • You would be laughed out of New York, New Jersey, the Northeast and 99 percent of baseball America if you even tried to declare that these Astros are the new Yankees. • But if you look beneath the surface? • If you examine the overall state of this Astros golden era and compare it to the Yankees’ last great run? • The similarities are striking. • A young core that an annual contender has been built around. • A franchise that got ahead of the game and remains ahead of the sport. • A nationally known team, loaded with superstars, that is thrilling, addicting and ready-made for prime-time TV in October. • A name — Astros — that keeps converting new believers while inspiring jealousy and frustration in Major League Baseball. • The 2019 Astros have only one immediate goal: Beat the Yankees for the second time in three years in the American League Championship Series.
The Astros have reached the ALCS three consecutive years, knocked New York out of the playoffs in 2015 and ’17, and are never afraid to tell the rest of MLB how good they are and how great they still can be.
“When I walked in the clubhouse door, it was game time, and everybody was fired up, and we were loose and having a good time doing what we normally do,” said Alex Bregman, after the Astros overcame Tampa Bay in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Thursday inside an absolutely cranked Minute Maid Park. “This team is special. And the reason that we’re special is because different guys step up every single night. Yeah, if one guy goes off, we’re probably going to win. Gerrit (Cole) went off twice this series.”
Bold. Brash. Wonderfully talented. College-like fun in a follow-the-leader era of analytics, openers, constant relievers, shifts and front-office overthinking.
Bregman began his Game 5 story by stating he was driving to the ballpark with his dad and was “nervous as hell.”
Cool. Low-key. Relatable. Just like you.
Bregman also said after Game 3 at Tropicana Field that the Astros would “come and finish it” in Game 4. They did not.
But the Astros are obviously strong enough to beat the Yankees again. They became instant World Series favorites the second they shocked baseball by trading for Zack Greinke before the final minutes of the July 31 deadline. They could spend the next decade annually living in the playoffs. And even though Cole is expected to command $200 million-plus in free agency after this World Series is complete, the big-city Astros haven’t ruled out re-signing a co-ace who smoked the Rays with two wins, 25 strikeouts and just one run allowed in the ALDS.
The Yankees were the envy of baseball at the start of this millennium.
The Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane built Astros are currently the club that the rest of MLB most admires (and criticizes).
“They could have been,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said after Game 5, when asked if the Astros were stealing signs while Tampa Bay starter Tyler Glasnow was getting shelled.
The Yankees are the last team to win back-to-back World Series, claiming the Fall Classic trophy three consecutive times from 1998 to 2000. From 2002-04, the Derek Jeter-led and Joe Torre-managed Yankees won at least 101 games a season.
The Astros have won 311 games the past three seasons. And with the Los Angeles Dodgers already eliminated in the National League, no remaining team features as much firepower as the professional ballclub from Houston.
Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Yuli Gurriel, Michael Brantley, Josh Reddick and Bregman. Justin Verlander, Cole, Greinke and Roberto Osuna. The 2019 Astros are expected to win the AL Cy Young (Verlander or Cole) and Rookie of the Year (Yordan Alvarez), while Bregman should challenge Mike Trout for MVP.
The Astros develop their own, and their minor league pipeline still flows. They traded prospects for some of baseball’s best arms. They spend wisely but also, increasingly, spend big.
Imagine you’re a supremely talented baseball player in our modern times. Who would you rather play for, the Astros or Yankees?
“It’s obviously a great team. Very well-run,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Friday at Minute Maid Park, the day before Game 1 of the ALCS. “Obviously, they’ve done a great job with their farm system of developing kind of homegrown superstars, as well as making a lot of decisions — smart decisions — of bringing in (other players), whether via trade, via free agency. They’ve certainly kind of established themselves as the class of this league here the last few years. Hopefully, we can ding it a little bit.”
The Astros need a few more serious October runs before they can be called the new Yankees.
But if the 107-win team beats the 103-win team in this ALCS?
If the 2019 Astros take down New York in the playoffs, just like in ’17 and ’15?
Who cares about being the new Yankees?
The Astros will simply be better than the Yankees. Again.