Look, I’m not here to argue with anyone still angry about the Houston Astros cheating scandal. However you feel about the 2017 and 2018 teams using technology and trash cans to alert their hitters about certain pitches is more than likely still valid.
We can also be honest about the fact that if MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had actually suspended the players involved or revoked the 2017 World Series title or basically done anything more than the laughable punishment he did hand out, it might be a bit easier to move past the scandal.
Accountability tends to help in these situations and, sadly, we never really got much of that from Houston after the Manfred report was released in 2020.
Got that? Ok. Cool.
The 2022 Astros are fun as hell. It has to be said. It can’t be ignored, and if these players were wearing any other jerseys, it’s probably all we’d be talking about.
They’re more than likely going to win the World Series in a rout. BetMGM has them as pretty solid favorites for a reason. This is a roster with very few obstacles it can’t overcome.
And, look, I get it. If you want to hate on Houston for cheating, by all means, go right on ahead. But let’s not even focus on the holdovers from the 2017-18 clubs that we know cheated. Forget about Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel, Lance McCullers Jr. and Justin Verlander for just a moment.
This Houston team is so much more than it’s past, and if you spend all your time focusing on what Manfred should have done, you’ll miss out on some of the best parts of the sport right now.
Start with Yordan Àlvarez — the team’s most exciting bat since Jeff Bagwell. At 25 years old, he’s arguably the most feared slugger in baseball outside of Aaron Judge. Àlvarez may already be one of baseball’s smartest sluggers, too. ESPN’s Jeff Passan profiled the approach Àlvarez takes to his craft and to hear his Houston teammates describe the Cuban designated hitter is just silly:
In his second major league at-bat, against then-Baltimore starter Dylan Bundy, Álvarez took a second-pitch changeup, low and on the outer half of the plate, and deposited it 413 feet away to the opposite field. On the bench, Astros players stirred. Álvarez had hit 23 home runs in AAA, but this established that he could do more than let his 6-foot-5, 225-pound frame propel balls over the fence.
“We asked him, ‘Changeup, to left-center?'” Altuve said. “You normally pull those when you’re a rookie. You just pull everything. And he said, ‘Yeah, I was looking at some video the night before, and the guy throws change away after a fastball inside.’ As a rookie — that was like, oh, God, that’s your first homer, and you’re already thinking like that? His approach is so good.
And it’s a work ethic like that which leads to moments like the three-run walkoff bomb Àlvarez hit to the second deck in right field during Game 1 of the 2022 ALDS against Seattle’s Robbie Ray — who led the league in strikeouts en route to a Cy Young award in 2021.
YORDAN ALVAREZ. LEGEND!pic.twitter.com/9fuapguGDg
— Apollo Media (@ApolloHOU) October 11, 2022
So you’re sick of looking at Jose Altuve at second base? Fine, shift your gaze over to Jeremy Pena at shortstop. The rookie— and 2022 ALCS MVP— is the reason why you don’t hear anyone clamoring for Carlos Correa in Houston these days.
Jeremy Peña with the rebound to get Gleyber out at first! pic.twitter.com/jbDsnP9Juw
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 21, 2022
Now three postseason homers for Jeremy Peña.
Rookie shortstop is hitting .322 in the 2022 playoffs. pic.twitter.com/AmAda672HE
— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) October 24, 2022
Correa posted a 7.2 WAR in his final season with Houston last year at age 26. As a 24-year-old getting his first taste of the majors, Pena posted a 4.8 WAR.
In fact, this season the 16.8 combined WAR of Pena, Àlvarez and Kyle Tucker, guys who weren’t around during the scandal, is far greater than the combined WAR of Altuve, Bregman and Gurriel (9.3).
Go ahead and hate on Verlander still if you must — and honestly, if you can fault a pitcher for a hitting scandal go right ahead, but maybe chose one other than the 39-year-old likely Cy Young-winner who appeared in just one game from 2019-2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery — just don’t let that stop you from enjoying Astros starters Framber Valdez and Jose Urquidy.
The two each throw breaking balls that look so tantalizing it’s impossible not to swing at them.
José Urquidy, Dirty Curveballs…and Sword. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/r1ypeqFnbu
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 3, 2022
Framber Valdez, K'ing the Side.
7th, 8th & 9th Ks pic.twitter.com/tGLv4eWAy1
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 21, 2022
Simply put: The 2022 Astros have plenty of guys worth getting excited about even if you still hate the team for what happened in 2017 and 2018. And again, hate away as much as you want. But don’t lie to yourself about this Houston team.
They’re a juggernaut. And if you call yourself a baseball fan, it’s impossible not to have fun watching them.
