The long-term plan Astros GM Jeff Luhnow had when he joined the team after the '11 season "was realized" when the team beat the Dodgers 5-1 in Game 7 last night to win the franchise's first-ever World Series, according to Jake Kaplan of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Luhnow upon joining the organization pitched Astros Owner Jim Crane his "vision to build a team primed to contend not only for a few years but an extended period of time." Both knew it would be "painful, and the Astros would have to be patient and disciplined while enduring as drastic a teardown and rebuild the sport has witnessed" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/2). In Houston, Brian Smith writes the World Series title represents a "total validation of Luhnow's master plan" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/2). In DC, Dave Sheinin writes the Astros winning the World Series "validated the organization's long teardown and rebuild that for a long while made them an industry laughingstock" (WASHINGTON POST, 11/2). In N.Y., Joel Sherman writes when Luhnow was hired, his strategy was to "keep losing, to get high draft picks, to save money for a better day, to accumulate as much young talent as possible, particularly in the everyday lineup." Crane said, "We had a process and we stuck to it" (N.Y. POST, 11/2). Crane: "It took a lot of hard work, but every decision we tried to make, we tried to make the best decision we possibly could over and over and over. You could start to see it come together a few years ago, and this year we were able to get there" (MLB.com, 11/2). Astros President of Business Operations Reid Ryan: "Jim Crane gets all the credit because he had the vision to tear it down to bare bones. That takes a lot of guts, especially for a new owner" ("MLB Tonight," MLB Network, 11/1).
TURNING THE TITANIC AROUND: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jared Diamond writes Luhnow turned around the franchise with a "paradigm-shifting experiment that upended the industry's establishment -- and in less than six years lifted the Astros to the top of the baseball world." Diamond notes plenty of execs before Luhnow "struggled with some version of the Astros' conundrum, but none ever attacked the puzzle quite like this." Instead of "trying to improve right away, make the roster worse -- on purpose." Luhnow and his front office of outsiders at first faced "swift and fierce criticism from the sport's orthodoxy." Luhnow last night said, "We ignored the criticism. We stuck to our plan. We modified it when we needed to. We drafted the right players. We developed our players. And here we are." Astros 2B Jose Altuve: "I believed in the process. I always believed that we're going to become good" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/2). Luhnow said, "We had some rough years, but we stuck to our plan. I want to thank ownership for supporting us the whole way and giving us the freedom to go out and get this group of players. ... We knew we had a plan that could get us here, and we got it, a world championship" ("World Series Game 7," Fox, 11/1). ESPN Radio's Randy Karraker tweeted, "Who would have thought on the day Pujols and Luhnow both left the @Cardinals in '11 that Luhnow would win it all before Albert?" FanSided's Climbing Tal's Hill feed: "Memo to Jeff Luhnow: The Process worked!" Science fiction writer John Scalzi: "Congrats to my schoolmate Jeff Luhnow ... for his team's victory in one of the best World Series ever."
GOING FROM WORST TO FIRST: CBSSPORTS.com's Jonah Keri writes the Astros accomplished something "no other team has ever pulled off so convincingly, going from three consecutive seasons of total hell to the top of the baseball mountain in a span of just four years" (CBSSPORTS.com, 11/2). Fox' Keith Hernandez said, "It's a classic story of patience, patience, patience. Three 100-loss seasons, and Jeff Luhnow came out and said, 'We are going to work from the ground up'" ("World Series Game 7," Fox, 11/1). THE RINGER's Ben Lindbergh writes the blueprint that proved "unpopular in non-sabermetric circles during those 50-something-win-seasons seems inexorable and unquestionable now that the plan has paid off." What the Astros accomplished was "bold and brilliant." It was never "automatic or meant to be, which only makes it more memorable and worthy of champagne" (THERINGER.com, 11/2).
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES: In Houston, David Barron writes an "awful lot had to go right for the Astros to emerge from 111-game losers" in '13 to 101-game winners in '17. What if P Justin Verlander had "pondered another minute or two whether to accept a deadline-hour trade" from the Tigers to the Astros? What if three 100-loss seasons in '11-13 had "soured" Altuve, P Dallas Keuchel and LF Marwin Gonzalez rather than "tempered them into resilient, productive veterans?" What if the Astros had "passed in the draft" on SS Carlos Correa? What would a young Astros clubhouse be "without the veteran leadership" of C Brian McCann and DH Carlos Beltran? (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/2).
THE WAY OF THE FUTURE? In Boston, Chad Jennings writes the Astros were seen as "ahead of the curve, and this championship surely will be seen as proof that these new models really are the future of baseball" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/2). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said, “The Cubs went from 100 losses in 2012 to the World Series in 2016. For the Astros, 100 losses in 2013 to the World Series in 2017. This is what it is about and the way it will be in pro sports -- not just baseball, where it’s not quite as easy to do because the hit-or-miss ratio on the guys you bring in is so much lower” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 11/2). Meanwhile, author Michael Lewis said both the Astros and Dodgers “represent the intellectualization of the sport." Lewis: “When ‘Moneyball’ came out, one of the raps against it was, ‘Oh, it’s going to make the game dull. It’s going to become science on the field.’ This World Series was anything but dull. What you got was an added layer of interest because there’s this intellectual life behind it” (“CBS This Morning,” 11/2).
