Successive editions of this newsletter are counting down the 50 greatest ballclubs of all time — a/k/a the Best 50 — as ranked by my new book, Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams. Today’s entry focuses on No. 14, the 2022 Houston Astros.
Here’s a quick boilerplate explanation that I’m appending to every story in this series:
I compiled the Best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league teams from 1903 to 2024. Those clubs have been ranked by their team scores (TS), which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given club’s all-time percentile is the percentage of the other 2,543 teams that it outperformed.)
See my book for an explanation of my TS calculations. The book also offers separate breakdowns of the best and worst clubs for every decade and franchise, comprehensive profiles of the Best 50 (including position-by-position lineups and much more information than you’ll find in this newsletter), and similar summaries of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now on to today’s profile.
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Team: 2022 Houston Astros
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Team score: 89.263 points
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All-time rank: 14 of 2,544
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All-time percentile: 99.49%
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Season record: 106-56 (.654)
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Season position: First place in American League West
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Final status: World champion
Critics insisted that the Astros owed their 2017 world championship to the sign-stealing system they had employed in their home ballpark. Houston’s players heatedly disagreed. “It wasn’t a necessary point of us winning. We still went out there and won ballgames on the road as well,” said right fielder Josh Reddick. Owner Jim Crane grew tired of the negativity. “We had a good team,” he said. “We won the World Series, and we’ll leave it at that.”
The naysayers might have been silenced if the Astros had immediately added a second championship without electronic assistance. They came close twice — winning American League pennants in 2019 and 2021 — only to lose both World Series.
Houston’s roster had undergone considerable turnover by 2022. Only five players remained from the 2017 roster, including stars Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Justin Verlander. They joined a cast of relative newcomers to seize Houston’s fifth AL West crown in six years, this time by a margin of 16 games.
Get the complete lowdown on the 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The 2017 Astros had suffered seven postseason defeats en route to their world title. The ’22 squad lost only two playoff games.
Houston swept Seattle in 2022’s American League Division Series, then New York in the AL Championship Series, though both rounds were hard-fought. Four of the seven wins were decided by a single run, including an 18-inning victory over the Mariners.
Houston starter Cristian Javier and three relievers combined for a no-hitter against Philadelphia in Game Four of the World Series. Teammates claimed that Javier’s 11-9 regular-season record was deceptive. “Honestly, I think he’s the most underrated pitcher in the league,” said closer Ryan Pressly. The no-hitter — the third in postseason history — knotted the series at two wins apiece. The Astros clinched the title three nights later.
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The Astros had emphasized offense over pitching in 2017. They led both leagues in runs scored during that championship season, yet they were only ninth-best in the majors in run prevention. The 2022 squad turned the tables. Houston’s pitchers posted the lowest ERA in the American League, while the batters slipped to eighth place in the big leagues in run production.
That doesn’t mean the Astros lacked offensive weapons. Second baseman Jose Altuve batted .300 on the nose, his sixth season at that level or higher. Altuve was one of the few remnants of Houston’s 2017 roster, as was third baseman Alex Bregman, who drove home 93 runs. Bregman served as a clubhouse leader, even learning Spanish to communicate with his Latin American teammates. “He sounds like an American,” laughed pitcher Francisco Liriano, “but he knows a good amount.”
The best of the younger Astros were designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, right fielder Kyle Tucker, and shortstop Jeremy Pena, all of whom had arrived after 2017. Alvarez had been a skinny teenager when he defected from Cuba, but he grew into a 237-pound slugger. His 37 homers were third-best in the AL. Tucker and Pena both won Gold Gloves. Tucker also led the team with 107 RBIs.
Pitcher Justin Verlander won his third Cy Young Award in 2022. He fashioned a 1.75 ERA; no other AL starter finished below 2.20. It was an especially impressive performance because Verlander was 39 years old. “Everybody wants to ask me, ‘How amazed are you?’ For me, I’m not,” he said. “I know how hard I worked.” Verlander notched a league-leading 18 victories. Staffmate Framber Valdez added 17.