Ever since the Braves decided that they would suck again, I’ve often been forced to gravitate to other teams to try and derive some enjoyment out of the game. I haven’t hidden my temporary allegiances to teams like the Royals and the Marlins, and I’ve been capable of finding some horse to root for while the Braves not-so deliberately tanked in order to clear payroll and improve draft positioning.
Prior to the start of the 2017 season, I remember seeing news about former Brave, Brian McCann getting traded to the Houston Astros from the New York Yankees. This was a move that seemed inevitable, due to the rise of now-starting catcher Gary Sanchez, and it wasn’t so much a question of if, but when it was going to happen, and to whom it was going to be to. My initial reactions were that Houston was kind of a non-contender (despite the fact that they had just made the playoffs), but also the irony of McCann being reunited with another former Brave teammate, Evan Gattis, yet another guy that put his job in jeopardy on a previous club.
And then not long afterward, the Astros announced that they had signed Carlos Beltran to a one-year deal. Returning to the team where his career took off, the prodigal son had returned. This is a guy that went off on the Braves and Cardinals in the playoffs in 2004 years before hitting free agency and bounced around the rest of the league making money. However, the elusive championship remained a pipedream for him, as he was on the Giants on an odd-numbered year, and his closest call ended in 2013 ended with defeat in the World Series.
Regardless, I looked at the acquisition of Carlos Beltran as a perfect piece for a team like the Astros who were brimming with young talent, many of whom were Latino, and would probably benefit greatly from an accomplished Latino veteran like him.
Needless to say, I picked the Astros as my World Series favorites prior to start of the season, because I felt like the veteran leadership added with guys like Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann were the components that could really push the Astros over the top, because their pitching was already solid and practically unchanged from the years prior when they were already knocking on the door.