In 2005, Houston was on top of the baseball world.  They went to the world series and had 23 future MLBers in their farm system:  Josh Anderson, Taylor Buchholz, Brooks Conrad, Hector Gimenez, Carlos Hernandez, Jason Hirsh, Tommy Manzella, Mark McLemore, Fernando Nieve, Hunter Pence, Chris Sampson, Mark Saccomanno, Drew Sutton, JR Towles, Ben Zobrist, Matt Albers, Jimmy Barthmaier, Sammy Gervacio, Juan Gutierrez, Troy Patton, Felipe Paulino, Chad Reineke, and Mitch Talbot.  Out of this group, only 4 are currently on the 25 man roster (Pence, Manzella, Sampson, and Paulino).

In 2006, they did not make the playoffs and the draft only netted 4 players who are still in the system (Bud Norris, Chris Johnson, Sergio Perez, and Jimmy Van Ostrand).

In 2007, they had a losing record and a draft which only 3 years later has produced only 1 player above high A (Collin DeLome) and only 7 players total remain in the system.

2008 saw a slight rebound as Houston returned to a winning record and (at least to this point) appears to have had an above-average draft, producing Jason Castro, Jordan Lyles, and Jay Austin.

2009 saw the big league team stumble to a 74-88 record.  The draft of course is still a long way from being judged, but seems to be about average.

Thus far in 2010, both the farm and the big league team are the worst in MLB. 

How was this allowed to happen?! How can it be remedied?