The 2015 postseason, it's now obvious, will be a coming-out party for the Houston Astros. They are the "it" team, poised on the precipice of something special.
Regardless of what happens in their American League Division Series matchup with the Kansas City Royals—last year's surprise October darlings—this is the year the 'Stros go from small-budget, also-ran obscurity to the MLB big time.
Narrowing the lens a bit more, there are two Astros in particular who are ready to make the leap to national notoriety and full-blown superstardom: shortstop Carlos Correa and second baseman Jose Altuve.
It's not that Houston's keystone combo has labored in anonymity. Correa is in the mix for American League Rookie of the Year honors, and Altuve is a three-time All-Star. But for the past several seasons, playing for the Astros meant you were unnoticed by default. Casual observers and even some media types are still catching up to the franchise's newfound relevance.
In 2011, Altuve's first big league campaign, the Astros lost 106 games. The next year, they lost 107. Then they topped themselves (and bottomed out) with 111 losses.
Last season, they enjoyed a 90-loss "rebound." And while discerning fans and baseball analysts understood this was a young, talented squad on the rise, they were still relegated to back-burner status hype-wise.
None of ESPN's prognosticators tapped Houston to make the playoffs, and Sports Illustrated ranked it the No. 25 team in baseball (out of 30) prior to the season, one slot behind the Texas Rangers.
So much for that. After an extended ride atop the AL West, the 'Stros ceded first place to, yep, the Rangers and settled for the second wild-card slot. Then they went to New York and shut out the Yankees, cruising to a never-in-doubt 3-0 victory behind ace Dallas Keuchel and a date with Kansas City.
Fittingly, the final out of the AL Wild Card Game was a chopper up the middle, which Correa gloved and slung to first to seal the Astros' first postseason victory in a decade.
Correa has been in the midst of many big moments since his June call-up.
"Our team could use the spark right now," general manager Jeff Luhnow said at the time, per MLB.com's Brian McTaggart. Boy, did they get one.
Correa shot out of the gate with five hits, including two home runs and a double, in his first 16 at-bats. On June 17, he was hitting .359 with a 1.016 OPS.
In a post-Jeter MLB starved for top-shelf shortstops, the 21-year-old former No. 1 overall pick looked like a bona fide savior. (Add Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians, Correa's chief competition for AL ROY, and you've got the makings of a shortstop renaissance.)
Yes, Correa's production tailed off a tad as the summer wore on. But his final .279/.345/.512 slash line with 22 home runs and 14 stolen bases bespeaks a well-rounded offensive force.
Correa had at least one booster in the Astros clubhouse before he even arrived, as Sports Illustrated's Ben Reiter revealed:
Early this season, while Correa was still in Triple A, Jose Altuve, the team's veteran second baseman, wrote Correa's name on a piece of athletic tape and affixed it over the empty locker next to his, as a faux nameplate. "I wanted him here," Altuve says. "I was saving his locker."
Later in the same piece, Reiter quotes Altuve as saying Correa is "the best player…on the team."
That's high praise, but that honor might belong to Altuve himself.
While small in stature—he's listed at 5'6", and that could be in his cleats—Altuve has been a huge part of the Astros' resurgence.
Last year, he paced baseball with 225 hits and a .341 batting average. He swiped 56 bags. And yet, somehow, he remained one of the game's most underrated players, as Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer argued last July.
This year, as the 'Stros rose to unexpected prominence, Altuve's stock also soared. Most notably, fans voted him into the Midsummer Classic starting lineup after he was relegated to a reserve role in 2014.
Now, along with his middle infield cohort—who checks in at 6'4"—he has a chance to stand tall (ahem) on the sport's biggest stage.
The pair went a combined 1-for-8 in the Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium, with Altuve collecting the only hit, a single.
As for their ALDS opponent, Altuve fared well against the Royals this year, going 8-for-24 with a double and a home run, while Correa went 2-for-17.
This is the playoffs, though, a new chapter. We can look at regular-season stats and parse the matchups. Ultimately, however, this time of year is about moments and which players rise to meet them.
There's no guarantee that either Altuve or Correa will do that. History is littered with supreme talents, sometimes future Hall of Famers, who fizzled in October.
But it feels like if one of them goes nuts, he'll pull the other guy with him. That's how it's been all season, as manager A.J. Hinch explained, per Richard Justice of MLB.com.
"I'm not sure which one pushes the other more," Hinch said, per Justice. "I think Altuve is introducing Carlos to the big leagues and pushing him to get acclimated quickly. I think Correa is pushing Altuve to be even better than he's been."
Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle aptly compared the dynamic duo to Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, two of the "Killer Bees" who keyed the Astros' success in the late '90s and early '00s.
In fact, as Ortiz points out, the last (and only) time Houston made it to the World Series was with Biggio and Bagwell in 2005.
"On the field, we're always talking, always having fun," Correa said of Altuve, per Ortiz. "That's the most important thing. Because at the end of the day, we expect to play many years together."
Now, we wait to see how far that bond—and the production it's fostered—can carry the Astros this year. And concurrently, how high Correa and Altuve can fly.
It's their party—we're all just lucky to be invited.
All statistics current as of Oct. 7 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.
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