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I wasn't so much disagreeing with you, just pointing out that getting to the position that Houston is in (where they could be about to have a string of great years) really isn't that difficult for a franchise to get to so the front office certainly shouldn't be lauded for it and the fanbase shouldn't be puffing their chests about it.
I'm sure there are teams that could screw it up, but most any franchise in baseball could keep the powder dry for 4 years, average 100+ losses, and come out on the other side with the potential to make a run of good years.
Most franchises choose not to do that because A) it's basically a slap in the face to the fanbase to not field a decent product for 4 years and B) there's no guarantee of success on the other end of things. Washington didn't use the same tanking method as Houston but it worked the same -- a string of really bad seasons landed them Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon (and to a lesser extent Denard Span via trade).
And they've certainly looked good coming out of that, but it hasn't amounted to even getting out of the divisional series.
It was a breath of fresh air for a front office to have a plan and execute it, even if it meant doing something unpopular. Drayton's turd polishing routine was much worse than what this front office did.
To be honest, I read what I wrote and I think back to the years when Texas was inking Sammy Sosa and Andres Gallaraga to deals just so maybe a 72 win team could be a 74 win team and how maddening that was and how many of us preferred to just tank and rebuild... So I retract that no team *should* do what Houston did, but I just don't know that as a fanbase I'd come out of the other side puffing my chest about the prospects received -- you paid very dearly for them.
