Might As Well Root For the Houston Astros

Getty Images

Postseason baseball in Pittsburgh ended as quickly as it began.

The Pirates, who posted the second-best record in Major League Baseball with 98 wins (which couldn't match St. Louis' 100 wins), were forced to play the 97-win Chicago Cubs in the one-game wild card and were shutout by Jake Arrieta and the Cubs 4-0.

Sigh. For the second-straight season, the Pirates were shut out in a wild card playoff game at home by a hot pitcher. Last year it was Madison Bumgarner, this season they ran into the buzzsaw that is Arrieta.

So, what now? You don't want to see one of your two division rivals advance further in the postseason and many aren't looking to jump on the Mets or Dodgers bandwagon.

Why don't we look to the American League West, and check out a team that used to reside in the elite National League Central. Let's root for the Houston Astros.

Why Houston? Why not?!

The Astros have been a hot mess as a team and organization since their last playoff appearance in 2005 when they won the National League pennant. It doesn't compare to the 20 years of losing that the Pirates experienced, but there has been hardships and front office problems along the way to what has been a surprising 2015 season for this young group. After all, the Astros lost 111 games two seasons ago, and did show some improvement, only losing 92 last season. Also, Houston lost over 105 games in three of the last four years. Also, they had a terrible television deal with Comcast Sportsnet Houston, before abandoning that sinking ship when Fox Sports Southwest was bought out by DirecTV and became ROOT Sports Southwest. So fans have a better outlet to watch this improved team.

The Astros got off to a hot start. They lead the American League West for a good part of the season, but lost ground as the Texas Rangers surged in the second half of the year, eventually winning the division on the final day, putting the Astros in as the second wild card in the American League.

Houston started their first postseason in the American League with a trip to the Bronx to face the Yankees in the A.L. Wild Card. New York, who just seemed happy to be there, was taken down by the Astros 3-0. A big win for what some are calling "the upstart Astros." 

Thursday night, the Astros began their American League Division Series against last seasons A.L. pennant winner, the Kansas City Royals. They took Game 1 by a score of 5-2, putting pressure on the Royals to tie the series Friday afternoon, before traveling to Houston for Game 3 and, if needed, a Game 4.

Let's take a look at this roster. Other than Carlos Gomez and Oliver Perez, you may not know many others. They are young. The oldest player on the roster is pitcher Pat Neshek, who just turned 34 back in September. That may have slightly raised the average age of this ball club, which is 26.8 years, the youngest in Major League Baseball.

Also, the Astros finally brought back their old blue and orange color scheme in 2013 when they switched leagues. One of the underrated looks in baseball. Much better than their uniforms of the past 20 years.

And Orbit! How can you hate Orbit?!

astros.mlbblogs.om

In the end, you can either root for the red-hot Chicago Cubs, or you can root for the team who was expected to lose, that has nothing to lose.