The Houston Astros ranked second in home runs (238) in all of baseball in 2017, the season they grabbed the World Series championship from the Los Angeles Dodgers, who ended the season at #11, with 221. Of the many elements fans, pundits, and reporters have identified as the reasons (if not the reason) the Astros went all the way was their team power.

It might not be surprising, then, to discover that Houston has focused on a system-wide emphasis on team power (and more specifically, certain players) the past handful of years. Some of those players are talking, and we can easily see how one of those winning elements has helped power the orange juggernaut. We can also see no reason, in the coming years, for that power to dwindle.

Understanding Baseball’s Power Greed

Most people involved in the playing of baseball from a young age –from t-ball to Little League, and through high school to college ball– have been repeatedly coached to avoid trying to hit a home run. The attendant rationale was that in trying to power the ball over the fence, over-swinging would prevail, and strikeouts or weak grounders would result.

Nevertheless, a premium was attached to pro ballplayers who were, somehow, despite coaches’ “brain-washing” to the contrary, able to, however inconsistently, swing for the fences. Many managers were willing to absorb production-free at-bats for the dice-rolling chance of a four-bagger every 15 at-bats or so. What else could explain the careers of, say, Dave Kingman or, more recently, former Houston Astros (and current Angels) first baseman, Chris Carter, the living prototype of the all-or-nothing approach to occupying a batter’s box four times a game?

(A separate debate on the alleged prevalent use of PEDs the last couple of decades might reveal the correlation between the desire, by teams, to acquire power, and some players’ resultant greed to illegally improve their power numbers to not only help their respective teams win, but to, concurrently, earn a higher salary).

Baseball, through the decades, has mostly seen hulking behemoths enjoy homer-hitting success. But, for all the muscle and bulk needed to propel a missile skyward provided by a Mark McGwire, Boog Powell, Franks Howard and Thomas, Willies Stargell and McCovey and now, the New York Yankees’ tree-toting Aaron Judge (not to mention tater-making machine teammate, Giancarlo Stanton), there are much smaller players who have carved their own niche into homer history.

Hank Aaron used strong, whip-like wrist action (and an impossibly unorthodox “foot-in-bucket” weight shift) to affect his power production. Willie Mays and the Astros’ Toy Cannon, Jimmy Wynn, used quick, powerful swings and high contact rates to counter-balance their lack of sheer muscle mass. Houston’s 5’5″, 160-pound AL MVP, Jose Altuve, improved his power numbers as a full-time player from seven HRs in 2014 to 15 in ’15, and 24 in each of 2016 and ’17. Altuve, of course, admittedly worked on improving his power, adjusting his swing path and angle, and all of it while a solidly-entrenched major leaguer.

Related: Jose Altuve Polishes Memories of Toy Cannon, Jimmy Wynn

In fact, Altuve, clearly having gotten the team’s power memo, was happy to pass along tater tips to Houston’s #21-ranked prospect, Myles Straw a couple of weeks ago during Spring Training. Straw, 23, not blessed with a classic power build or stroke at 5’10”, 180 lbs, described his meeting with Altuve: “He told me, ‘You want to hit more home runs than doubles.’ He said my on-base numbers were there; I’m good enough, I’m quick enough.

“He was telling me, ‘I used to have no power,’ and then, he said, he talked to guys like Miguel Cabrera, and they told him he has more in the tank and can be better,” Straw said. “He told me it’s not hard to hit 10 good balls in the air out of the ballpark a year. For me, it meant a lot.”

Crossing Enemy Foul Lines

The Astros’ 8th-round pick in 2013, outfielder Jason Martin was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with popular pitcher Joe Musgrove, infielder Colin Moran, and hurler Michael Feliz for Gerrit Cole in mid-January. Martin has proven to be a gap-hitting, .270-hitting speed merchant, having swiped 74 bases over his five seasons at various levels of Houston’s minor league system. Over his first 281 games, he hit a total of just nine home runs. A near body-type double to Straw, the left-handed Martin does have five pounds on Myles, according to his official listing.

“When I first got drafted, [power] wasn’t part of my game,” Martin recently told The Athletic. “I wasn’t thinking about launch angle,” Martin continued. “Over the last couple of years, the Astros have enforced that with all of their hitters, making little modifications to their swings to get the ball into the air.”

With the emphasis, now, on power up and down Houston’s affiliate line, why would Martin want his nose pressed against the proverbial glass? In 2016, Martin clobbered 23 homers in 110 games at Houston’s then-California League Advanced-A Lancaster club, but, frankly, power numbers are notoriously bloated at Cal League stadiums. In 2017, he went deep a total of 18 times, in a combined season at Advanced-A Buies Creek and AA Corpus Christi, a more realistically reflective proof of Martin’s increased power display.

According to The Athletic, “Some of that [power] is due to better pitch recognition and command of the strike zone. Some of it is because Martin’s body has filled out and gotten more muscular. A lot of it is due to tweaks Martin has made to his swing.”

“The ball is coming in on a downward plane and my swing is meeting that,” Martin said. “It’s an uppercut, but it’s not really a dramatic one. It’s about staying on that same plane that the ball is on.”

Predictably, Martin’s increased power stroke and numbers have come at the cost of more swings and misses. “I traded off — my OPS went up, but also my strikeouts went up,” Martin admitted. “Once I get more comfortable with my swing, that all will level off.” Pittsburgh’s coaches will certainly hope so.

Pushing What May Be Impossible: Making #2 Prospect Kyle Tucker Better

Even the Astros’ second-ranked player (and top-ranked position player), Kyle Tucker, is not immune to being drawn to the new power paradigm. Through spring games of March 15, Tucker is tied for second place with American League home run leaders, with four, and has driven in 15 while batting .412.

Myles Straw, one of Tucker’s best friends, had this to say about the young phenom’s swing to MiLB.com, recently: “He’s the kind of guy that wants to do something that will benefit him in two years. “Hitting .300 in the (Arizona) Fall League wasn’t his priority at the time (Tucker hit .214 with no homers and a .615 OPS in 2017’s AFL). He’s the kind of guy that he’d rather fix his swing against quality pitching to where he can play in the big leagues.”

After realizing that “you can’t really top-spin too many home runs,” Tucker focused on staying through the ball and giving backspin to his pull side, according to the article. The left-handed hitter finally saw the plus-power he always knew he had as he posted career highs with 25 homers, 33 doubles, and 90 RBIs, in a 2017 career path quite similar to Straw’s and Martin’s, a year split between Buies Creek and Corpus.

Spotlighting Tucker’s talent for timely hitting, as well as his burgeoning power, MiLB asserts that “It wasn’t just how many homers he was hitting, but when he was hitting them that was so intoxicating for fans. Ever since their first season together in 2015, when Tucker belted three jacks in six playoff games for rookie-level Greeneville, Straw has enjoyed his view of the power show, usually batting one or two spots higher in the lineup.”

Related: Astros Have Fun Calling Kyle Tucker “Ted”

A Manager’s Perspective

As manager for Houston’s Class A Quad Cities River Bandits in 2016, and Buies Creek’s skipper last season, Omar Lopez saw Tucker clear the fence more than a few times. Thinking back, he most remembers a deep shot at the end of a long game, and relayed the following anecdote to MiLB: “In a cold May contest at Carolina, Tucker came up in the 14th inning against Quintin Torres-Costa, a hard-throwing lefty [for Milwaukee’s AA Biloxi club]. Not needing to be ‘the guy,’ the Florida native just wanted to get on base for the next batter. He ended up drilling a go-ahead blast and rousing a tired dugout.

“A lot of people talk about how his swing path is a little bit different,” Lopez said. “But he finds his way to put his barrel on the ball. Every time when he puts the barrel on the ball, he’s doing damage, regardless if he’s out of the park or the gap.

“I’m going to be excited to watch him play in the big leagues as soon as possible,” Lopez concluded. “And I think he has a pretty good chance if he keeps doing what he’s been doing.”