I'm not sure that I can think of a team in sports who has done a more remarkable job of extending a championship window, amidst a slew of free agency departures and the normal churn of trying to maintain greatness, than the Houston Astros of the last eight years or so. It's been an incredible ride.

The easy measurement comes with the six straight trips to the American League Championship Series, the four World Series appearances, and the two championship trophies. Do some digging into the nooks and crannies of the roster construction, core player by core player, and it's amazing how they've maintained this run, particularly through multiple managers (A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker), multiple general managers (three, now), and a drastic punishment from the cheating scandal.

One way to diagnose exactly how the Astros have been able to extend this reign of terror over baseball is merely by counting the number of elite players on the roster, as compared to the rest of Major League Baseball. Fortunately,MLB.com does the heavy lifting every year with their list of the Top 100 players in the game.

This year's list, of which they've revealed 80 of the 100 players (players 21 through 100 in the rankings), has seven Astros revealed thus far, with one sure fire Astro, Yordan Alvarez, to be revealed later this week when the final twenty players are announced.

So far, here are the Astros that have been unveiled, complete with their ranking in the Top 100:

80. CRISTIAN JAVIER, SP, HOU
64. JEREMY PENA, SS, HOU
56. FRAMBER VALDEZ, SP, HOU
40. JOSE ABREU, 1B, HOU
30. KYLE TUCKER, OF, HOU
24. ALEX BREGMAN, 3B, HOU
23. JOSE ALTUVE, 2B, HOU

So the Astros will have eight of the top 80 players in all of baseball, once these rankings are done. That will likely tie them with the New York Mets, who've had six players in the 21 though 100 range, and will likely add former Astro Justin Verlander and fellow ace Max Scherzer, once the top twenty players are unveiled. Speaking of former Astros, perhaps even more remarkable is that the Astros keep winning World Series, despite losing the following players in the Top 100:

96. Joe Musgrove, SP, SD
83. Teoscar Hernandez, OF, SEA
49. George Springer, OF, TOR
37. Gerrit Cole, SP, NYY
22. Carlos Correa, SS, MIN

The other scary thing for the rest of baseball is that, of the eight Astros making this list, only Altuve and Abreu are over the age of 30. The Astros are going to be running it back with a great core for several more seasons.

By my count, these should be the 20 players unveiled later this week, in an order to be determined:

Yordan Alvarez, OF/DH, HOU
Justin Verlander, SP, NYM
Aaron Judge, OF, NYY
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.,  1B, TOR
Rafael Devers, 3B, BOS
Jose Ramirez, 3B, CLV
Shohei Ohtani, DH/OF/SP, LAA
Mike Trout, OF, LAA
Julio Rodriguez, OF, SEA
Bryce Harper, OF/DH, PHI
Mookie Betts, OF, LAD
Freddie Freeman, 1B, LAD
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, STL
Juan Soto, OF, SD
Manny Machado, 3B, SD
Sandy Alcantara, SP, MIA
Nolan Arenado, 3B, STL
Trea Turner, SS, PHI
Austin Riley, 3B, ATL
Max Scherzer, SP, NYM

If I had to predict where Yordan Alvarez ends up on this list, I would say he is definitely behind Ohtani, who will undoubtedly be the number one player in the game, when the list is finalized. Outside of Ohtani, I can make a case for Yordan ahead of every other player on the list. To be clear, for about ten of the players still remaining, I could make a case AGAINST Yordan, as well.

It should be a fun reveal! I'll say Alvarez finishes sixth on the list.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.