Houston Astros 2017 World Series Team Not Highly Regarded Among Recent Champions

The 2017 Houston Astros World Series team is ranked lowly among the last 20 champions.

Nov 3, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros left fielder Marwin Gonzalez (9) and third baseman Alex Bregman (2) holds the championship trophy during the World Series championship parade and rally at Houston City Hall. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The year 2017 was the start of an incredible run for the Houston Astros organization.

That was the first season they advanced to the ALCS since 2005, when they were swept in the World Series by the Chicago White Sox. It kick-started what was an incredibly dominant stretch.

The Astros advanced to the ALCS in seven consecutive times before the Detroit Tigers eliminated them in the Wild Card Round this year. They have won the American League West title in every full season since 2017; the only time they didn’t was in the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened campaign.

That championship run led to the team winning the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Outfielder George Springer won the MVP Award.

However, their accomplishments have been marred by the cheating scandal that came about.

Sign-stealing penalties were levied against several people, some of whom weren’t even with the organization any longer. As a result, the 2017 Houston squad found itself at the bottom of Zachary D. Rymer’s rankings of the last 20 teams victorious in the World Series.

“Sorry, but we don't honor cheaters in this house. And as stacked as they were, the case of the 2017 Astros would have been marred by those slim postseason margins anyway,” the MLB expert wrote over at Bleacher Report.

The Astros were dominant in the regular season, going 101-61 with a +196 run differential. Their 1.2 differential per game was tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for second in baseball; only the Cleveland Indians at 1.6 were better.

The Dodgers are the ones they ended up defeating in a seven-game series to bring the title home for the first time.

However, it is fair to question whether or not Houston would have made it that far without the edge they created by stealing their opponent's signs.

In the postseason, they went 11-7 with only a +4 differential. That is the only single-digit run differential for any champion on the list, which would have been enough to land them in the cellar of the rankings.

Alas, a lot of that noise was put to rest when the team broke through again in 2022, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

During the remarkable stretch of ALCS appearances, they advanced four times, winning the World Series twice. Two of them came before the cheating scandal was revealed, and two came after.