In the book Astroball, Ben Reiter outlines how the Astros developed the World Series winning 2017 team. Reiter is the Sports Illustrated writer who correctly predicted the ‘Stros would win it all two years earlier. He writes about how Jeff Luhnow, general manager, built the team by taking the Moneyball concept and looked for players adept at using sabermetrics. According to Reiter, Luhnow looked for players with a “growth mindset.” Many organizations talk about the same trait when scouting for talent.
The 2017 team was a favorite. Not a favorite to win (that was the Dodgers), but a great story. A come-back story. Likable baseball heroes. Hurricane Harvey had decimated parts of Houston with flooding and the city was recovering. And the Astros won it all. A Cinderella story that Disney could not have written better. This year, the Nationals got the better of the Astros in seven games. Houstonians wondered if the Astros could become a dynasty like the Yankees of 2000s. We had the same team (essentially), plus some of the best pitching talent in the game.
