Why, it was just one year ago …

The Astros had won the World Series, were honored with the biggest, wildest parade in Houston history, we had the Cy Young Award winner, a beloved pineapple head at first base, the city’s most popular athlete ever at second, a cutie-pie rookie and post-season MVP at short, local hero at third, burgeoning superstar in right and you know the rest.

All was wonderful in Astro World and Houston was in love with its baseball team.

And then for seemingly no good damn reason …

Cy Young winner Justin Verlander left Houston to become the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history in New York. Jose Altuve broke his hand in a glorified exhibition game and missed nearly half the season. Jeremy Pena had a power outage at the plate. We lost Yuli Gurriel to free agency without putting up a fight. His big-money, long-term replacement was a disappointment. The Astros shortchanged and angered Kyle Tucker in arbitration. Once-lovable, suddenly cranky manager Dusty Baker made unpopular lineup decisions that infuriated the front office and turned a large number of fans against him. The Astros limped home to a tie for the American League West and ultimately lost the ALCS to dreaded in-state rival Texas Rangers.

Now the Astros appear resigned to losing Alex Bregman in free agency after next year and nobody wants to think about Kyle Tucker’s contract situation the year after that. Barring injury or drop in production, Tucker will hold all the cards commanding a contract the Astros probably can’t afford. Suddenly No. 2 pitcher Framber Valdez appears in trade talks.

Three useful relievers are out the door. And while other teams are breaking their piggy banks to sign star free agents, the Astros look financially overmatched on the sidelines. Are we really facing a future with Grae Kessinger as our starting third baseman?

How did this happen? Better question: why?

We hear that the Astros are facing red ink up to $50 million dollars because of a new TV network deal. But that’s little more than one superstar player in the current marketplace. After overpaying Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero last year, the Astros seemingly only have enough money to keep Jose Altuve, whose price tag it’s presumed will have a hometown discount.

Have the Astros become a mid-market franchise waiting to capture leftovers from money bags teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Padres?

Or does general manager Dana Brown, now clearly captain of the ship, have a secret strategy to avoid the inevitable descent into aging irrelevancy and jump start a rebuilding process to keep the Astros above water?

Ten years ago, the Astros were down on their luck and even farther down in the American League West standings – last place with a 51-111 record.

The following season, the general manager fired the Astros manager and hired the right guy to kick-start the Astros into unprecedented success. The general manager was Jeff Luhnow and the manager was A.J. Hinch. While both were dismissed a few years later amid the Astros sign-stealing scandal, their blueprint produced seven consecutive ALCS appearances, four World Series appearances and two championships.

Will history repeat itself? Now we have general manager Dana Brown making the choice of manager Joe Espada and reloading the lineup with young promising pieces. Sounds like a plan.

Meanwhile, those teams I mentioned with the open checkbooks and star-studded lineups? Last we looked, there weren’t any title parades in Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Chicago and definitely not in San Diego. There was song, money can “buy you a diamond ring my friend,” but it didn’t say anything about a World Series ring.