He was am All-American D3 pitcher so he knows the game and when he bought the Astros he had a vision of what to do and LISTENED to people. He hired Luhnow who was the architect of those dominant Cardinals teams from 2006-2011 and basically executed a plan that was genius.

Starting in about 2011 they traded anything that had value and stripped the club to a $20M payroll for about 3 years getting draft picks and prospects to re-stock the farm system. McClane (Uncle Drayton) had been shopping the team for years and basically invested nothing into the farm system, development, and scouting. He sat on the porch in his rocking chair with the For Sale sign out front. The team was a mess when Crane bought it and as part of the deal was forced to switch to the AL (probably a blessing in disguise).

The Astros lost 100 games for three years from 2011-2013 while drafting guys like:

2011 George Springer - 1st, 2012 Carlos Correa - 1st, Lance McCullers - 2nd, 2014 Derek Fisher - 1st,
AJ Reed - 2nd, 2015 Alex Bregman - 1st and many many other pieces.

They used all that new stockpiled talent on trades for guys like 2016 - McCann, 2015 Ken Giles for 1st pick bust Mark Appel, 2017 - Velander (enough said) while also making crucial fee agent additions such as Greggerson, Morton, Reddick, Beltran and Gurriel. Altuve was there through it all, which makes it so special for him. They also got guys like Will Harris off the trash heap.

Luhnow's use of metrics is well documented. Hiring AJ Hinch (former MLB catcher and Stanford Psychology grad) was a huge plus as well. He keeps the team loose and allows players freedom to be themselves, which makes them play better.

This is a great group of guys who play the game the right way and are easy to root for. There is plenty of room on the bandwagon - hop aboard!