What is the best Houston Astros team of all-time?

The Houston Astros have played 56 Major League Seasons, but which is the best?

As a disclaimer, this ranking of the best Houston Astros teams are just my opinion. If you care to share yours, share it with me on twitter.

Honorable Mentions:

It’s hard to leave these teams out of my top five, but at the end of the day I think it is the correct placement. The 2021 Astros made a World Series, but just did not have enough pitching. The 2004 Astros were a pitching powerhouse, but did not have enough offense to match it, even with Carlos Beltran.

5. 2005 Houston Astros

This team was the one to finally get over the hump. Houston wanted their baseball team to play for a World Series so bad, and for 40 years they never had. Finally, in 2005 this team made it. They went 89-73-1 over the regular season, and historically beat the Cardinals & the Braves in the National League playoffs, before being swept by the Chicago White Sox. To this day, however, this is the lowest run differential in the fall classic, of all time.

This team was known for its pitching staff which included Roy Oswalt, Andy Petite, Roger Clemens, Brandon Backe and Wandy Rodriguez. It also had closer Brad Lidge, who had an ERA of 2.29 that year.

On the other side of the ball, there was an aging but still great Craig Biggio & Jeff Bagwell. The best player behind the plate that year was Lance Berkman, managing a .934 OPS and Morgan Ensberg with .945. Other notable players: Brad Ausmus, Adam Everett, Chris Burke, Willy Taveras.

4. 1986 Houston Astros

This is by far the “hottest” take on this list, but hear me out. On paper, there is no reason why this team doesn’t win the World Series. But if you know anything about the 1986 Mets, they were just simply destined.

The 1986 Houston Astros went 96-66, winning the NL East and placing them immediately in the NLCS, where they would lose to the eventual champion New York Mets in six games. This was another killer pitching staff, consisting of Mike Scott, Bob Knepper, Nolan Ryan and Jim Deshaies.

The starting lineup consisted of Alan Ashby, Glenn Davis, Bill Doran, Dickie Thon, Denny Walling, Jose Cruz, Billy Hatcher and Kevin Bass. Besides Thon and Hatcher, every player had an OPS above .700, with three guys above .800. There might not be a ton of huge names on this team besides the pitching staff, but these guys were so consistent.

That’s exactly why they managed to win 96 games, and win a division that had 6 teams, all finishing with at least a .447 winning percentage (all of them were in the hunt). This team should have beat the Mets, and won the World Series Championship that Houston wanted oh so bad. Don’t worry 1986 Houstonians, only another 31 years to go!

3. 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros

What Zach? The only team to win a Championship is not your number one? Nope, and for good reason. Yes, the offense was potent and the team won 101 games. However, looking back, there are some very obvious holes in the lineup. For starters, there was not a true Left Fielder the entire year. It started with Nori Aoki and later  Marwin Gonzalez.

Gonzales is great utility player and was a very quality hitter that year, but you can’t tell me that he should be the everyday Left Fielder for a World Series Champion. The same thing can be said about Evan Gattis and Carlos Beltran at Designated Hitter.

They just simply are not that good. Moving to pitching, its a good staff, but not a great one. Mike Fiers had a losing record. That’s all I’ll say about him. I guess he outed the cheating because it didn’t help him enough to even finish .500. He also had a 5.22 ERA.

Looking at the rest of the rotation, Lance McCullers Jr. and Collin McHugh were good enough in the postseason, but in reality were mediocre at best that year. The pitching was truly carried by Dallas Keuchel, Justin Verlander and Charlie Morton.

The bullpen was also quite reliable. The main hole in the batting lineup was Josh Reddick, but the bats were very hot that year. That is why we won the World Series. Names like George Springer, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel and Alex Bregman got hot right when the time was right, and brought Houston its first ring. But the team would only get better.

2. 2018 Houston Astros

This team gets overlooked because they got destroyed by a very hot Boston Red Sox team, but on paper, this team was the 2017 Astros but with even more pieces added. They finished with 103 wins, swept the Indians in the American League Division Series, and then everything imploded.

The pitching staff was absolutely loaded, consisting of Justin Verlander, Dallas Keuchel, Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton, and Lance McCullers Jr. That can be argued as the greatest pitching rotation of all time, and is much of an upgrade from the previous year.

While Gonzalez was still in left field, the depth of the lineup was much better, with guys like Tony Kemp and Jake Marisnick really coming alive. Behind the plate we had a tandem of Max Stassi and Martin Maldonado, which in my opinion is much of an upgrade from Brian McCann. We still had all that batting power in the lineup as well, with all of the 2017 core sticking around.