Book Review – Astroball

Let’s be honest – Even though the Houston Astros cheated with their system of cameras and trash cans, there’s no denying that the work the Houston front office did to build the Astros into the perennial contender they now are after years of 100+ losing seasons is impressive. I grew up a Cleveland baseball fan during the years of the decrepit Municipal Stadium and decades of futility when a winning record was almost a once in a lifetime experience. Seeing what John Hart and his team did to build Cleveland into a World Series organization, I can appreciate when something similar happens for another team.

The book name, Astroball, was chosen to indicate how this is in some ways a continuation of the story Michael Lewis told within Moneyball, his book about Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletics and their revolutionary use of data to find “diamond in the rough” ball players they could afford but who could also produce on the field. With Astroball, the focus is on the pair of Jeff Luhnow and Sig Mejdal, who took the stats focused methods which Beane and other GMs refined and combined them with scouting data and reports, in a sense combining the best of old and new school approaches to create a new system of finding and retaining talent on their rosters.

After coming together and implanting their front office style in St. Louis with the Cardinals, Luhnow and Mejdal would come to Houston in2011 with the goal of taking the “Disastros” from the worst team in baseball to a team who would reach the World Series twice in three seasons, winning the championship in 2017. The journey was by no means easy, especially when the duo committed to getting rid of any and all players on the 2011 roster who they felt didn’t fit their plans, regardless of their success on the field or their popularity off of it. Three straight 100 loss seasons didn’t help, either, but Astroball bore fruit with the first winning season since 2008 for the team in 2105, followed by winning it all in 2017.

While I believe that the Houston Astros got off incredibly easy after their cheating was uncovered in 2019, I also believe that Luhnow and Mejdal do not receive enough credit for what they accomplished, both in St. Louis and in Houston. Baseball’s stats revolution hasn’t ended with Luhnow’s disgrace from the sign stealing scandal which cost him his job in Houston, as Major League Baseball front offices continue to search for the next leading edge technology or method to give them even the slightest advantage over their competition. Which team will be the next to rise up from years of losing to build a contender?