Have we been watching the same...

A curious thing has happened since the Houston Astros won their second World Series in six years and fourth American League pennant in the same span of time. The team is acting like the whole experience has been miserable.

Days after clinching the Fall Classic, Houston owner Jim Crane dropped general manager James Click, and it sure sounded like manager Dusty Baker would've seen the same fate had the team not just won a championship. Instead, the team gave him a one-year contract to return next season, as if he needed a prove-it deal.

The Astros were already doing what Jeff Bagwell wants — just not how he wants

The Astros are infamous for their love of quantitative analysis, but it's not like they were sitting down Yordan Álvarez and telling him he needs to seek more walks. The Astros (and Dodgers) have become the model for other clubs because of how they meld analytics, player development and resources into an effective team.

Justin Verlander just won the Cy Young unanimously and nabbed his first World Series game win four years after he extolled the Astros' front office under Jeff Luhnow for helping him evolve into a new, even better pitcher. Álvarez had the best offensive season by a player not name Aaron Judge six years after the Astros' scouting stole him from the Dodgers. Jeremy Peña was ALCS MVP and World Series MVP four years after the Astros picked him in the third round of the MLB draft and developed him into a top prospect and defensive ace.

Bagwell outlined his priorities as "scoring runs" and "getting 27 outs" after a season in which the Astros ranked third in the AL in runs scored and led the AL in ERA. And won 106 games. And a World Series title. He says Crane wants a mix of fundamentals and analytics, but the team sure seemed to achieve that in 2022.

The only way this outlook really makes sense is if "analytics" has become the scapegoat for whatever its critics dislike as a team goes through ups and downs. Álvarez going yard? Well, that's just talent. A rally ending on a strikeout when a ball in play would've scored a run? Analytics! Valdez throwing a complete game? A throwback performance. A different pitcher striking out eight but lasting only five innings? Damn analytics.

Well, rest easy. The Astros have apparently learned their lesson. Their first order of business: signing a 32-year-old reliever to a three-year, $34.5 million deal after one good season. Even in a world in which analytics has become a buzzword bleached of all meaning, we know it doesn't get more anti-analytics than that.