OK- so Astros prospect system ranked by year:
2018- 13
2019- 12
2020-28
2021- 25
2022- 29
2023- 30
2024- 27
OK- that looks pretty dreadful- lets see how they do at graduating Stars (1 every 3 years) and solid to above average regulars (need 2 every year). If you do what I suggest is necessary that means you have 12 league average or regulars on home grown deals and 2 stars on cost controlled deals. That means you should be paying something like 60M for those 14 players. That would leave roughly 150M to spend on the other 12 players to get to the first tax line. Call it that means signing 1 super star, 1 regular star, 1 regular total dude and the rest is depth. That's where I get my metrics from- and that makes sense. Now- lets see how they Astros have done by this metric and compare to their rankings:
2019- graduated- Yordan Alvarez, Framber Valdez, Tyler White, Myles Straw, Abraham Toro (how comically bad does this look for those to come from the 13th ranked system- seriously- point and laugh and mock.
2020- Kyle Tucker, Jack Mayfield, Christian Javier, Jose Urquidy, Enoli Paredes, Brandon Bielak, Josh James
2021- Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Jose Siri, Garrett Stubbs, Luis Garcia, Blake Taylor, Bryan Abreu, Andre Scrub
2022- Jeremy Pena, JJ Matijevic, David Hensley, Korey Lee, Seth Martinez, BLake Taylor
2023- Yainer Diaz, Corey Julks, Grae Kessinger, David Hensley, Hunter Brown, JP France
2024- Joey Loperfido, Zach Dezenezo, Pedro Leon, Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti, Jake Bloss, Bryan King
Note- you could quibble a bit here and there about years where a guy graduated. I didn't necessarily base it upon losing rookie status nor first appearing in the big leagues- it's a little subjective and I based it upon when I noticed the guy was an Astro and felt like this was his big league opportunity and it was more than a cup of coffee.
That's the last 6 years. With not extensions signed this is all guys under club control making minimum wage. The tally:
Superstar/MVP God level: Yordan (if you can do this once a decade you are happy about that
All Stars: Tucker, Framber (this is the guys you need to send up once every 3 years or so.
SIGNIFICANT contributions to WS championship teams: Christian Javier, Jose Urquidy, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Luis Garcia, Bryan Abreu, Jeremy Pena
Potential all stars (and maybe super stars)- Pena, Yainer Diaz, Hunter Brown, Spencer Arrighetti, Ronel Blanco (he was probably the last cut from all star team this year
Solid league average regular types- Chas, Jake,
Traded for interesting stuff- Myles Straw, Toro, SIri, Stubbs, Korey Lee, Loperfido, Bloss
Had moments of winning play where they helped us while going to 7 ALCS in a row: Tyler White, Paredes, Bileak, James, Taylor, Hensley, Seth Martinez, Corey Julks, JP France
Jury still out but I'm intrigued- Dezenzo
Jury still out but I'm selling- Pedro Leon.