which "proves that our model did work," he said.

The team was bad, and the system was bad," he told CNBC.

What a difference five years can make.

Jim Crane, Houston Astros owner and chairman, once faced criticism for his plan to lead the baseball team to victory. At the time, the Major League Baseball team's roster was the first in franchise history to have lost more than 100 games.

Now, the Astros are the 2017 World Series champions.

When Crane purchased the team for $680 million in 2011 from entrepreneur Drayton McLane, he knew there was a lot of work to be done.

"We came in and looked at the entire operation from the business side to the baseball side," he told CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Tuesday.

Pretty soon after that, he reached his conclusion: "The team was bad, and the system was bad."