Back in 2014, after the Giants won their third straight title and the Astros limped to a 70-92 record, I group-chatted my high school friends (I grew up in the Bay Area), and I told them that they had a great run, but the Giants wouldn’t have a better record than the Astros for at least another decade.
On the facts of it, I was wrong (2016 was a backslide year) but the basic idea was correct. The Astros’ window was open, and the Giants’ was closing, compounded by a GM who was behind the times and a fanbase that expected a winning team.