In eight years with Jeff Luhnow as their general manager, the Astros raced to the forefront of baseball’s analytics and technology movements.



TrackMan data and high-speed video replaced a vast majority of their in-person scouting. In the minors, they hired a new wave of coaches to translate the numbers and advertise the use of new-age tools to the players from rookie ball through Triple A. At the major-league level, they became known as the team that made pitchers better by optimizing their pitch usage in favor of fewer fastballs and more breaking balls.



Gradually, Luhnow created top-to-bottom alignment throughout the subsets of his baseball operations department. The Astros value the same skills in player development that they do in the majors and value the same skills in the draft and on the international market that they do in player development.



But his leadership came with a price. On the same day MLB suspended Luhnow for one year for his lack of...