Joe Sheehan is one of the best writers at the incomparable baseball Baseball Prospectus. Yesterday he penned the following summary analysis on what has happened to the Stros this season and the prospects for the future:

For the Astros, Roger Clemens is a candidate for the Cy Young Award, and Roy Oswalt has been a top-ten starter in the NL. Andy Pettitte and Wade Miller, however, have combined for 30 starts, while Tim Redding put up a 5.73 ERA and lost his spot in June. Brandon Duckworth was awful in his stead.
The trade of Billy Wagner to the Phillies has been blamed for some of the Astros’ pitching problems, but the real culprit was the rotation. The Astros had plenty of pitching with which to replace Wagner in the back of the bullpen–Brad Lidge has been dominant, and Octavio Dotel was effective before being traded–but when three-fifths of the rotation averaged 5 2/3 innings a start, the strain on the bottom of the staff cost the the team a lot of games in the early part of the season.
It didn’t help that this was the year in which the Astros’ offense finally died, and it did so while getting Craig Biggio’s best season since he was a second baseman back in 2001. The team’s .257 EqA ranks 12th in the NL. This will be the first below-average offense the Astros have had since 1991, Jeff Bagwell’s rookie season. Thirteen years later, Bagwell has been part of the problem, his bum right shoulder limiting him to a .443 slugging average that is flirting with his career low.
Jeff Kent and Morgan Ensberg have been disappointing as well, and a team carrying Brad Ausmus and Adam Everett just can’t affford that many underachievers. Even upgrading from Richard Hidalgo to Carlos Beltran in June wasn’t enough.
It would be nice if there was one easy answer to the Astros’ collapse, but there isn’t, and that’s baseball. Sometimes, if everyone is a little off-a couple of pitchers get hurt, a couple of hitters find their decline phase-you’re not good enough to win any longer. That’s the edge the Astros, with their love for their veteran players, have balanced on for a few seasons now. This year, even with Roger Clemens coming aboard and doing Roger Clemens things, they finally fell off.
It’s time to start over. While there will be a considerable desire to bring back the popular core of this team for another run, there’s no baseball reason for doing so. It’s an old team with no upside whose best player, Beltran, isn’t coming back. There’s no core of young talent ready to step in an rejuvenate the lineup, and there isn’t the willingness or ability to spend $100 million on the payroll, which might be enough to keep the engine running.
The Killer Bs had a long and prosperous run, winning four division titles in five seasons at their Larry Dierker peak. That they never won a playoff series became their story, but the fact remains that this is the dominant team in the storied history of the NL Central.
And it’s time to say goodbye to it.

Hat tip to the Astro in Exile for the link to Mr. Sheehan’s piece.