In the game of baseball, it is almost always bad to live in the middle. If you are among the worst teams and kinda know what you are doing, you will end up with a high draft pick and be able to reload your farm system to succeed in the future. If you are picking low, it is because you made it to the playoffs, and that is what it is all about. Unfortunately, the Houston Astros managed to do neither.
As the "best" of the non-playoff teams, the Astros had the worst draft lottery odds, and only playoff teams are picking below them, except the Mets, but that's because New York has a 10-pick penalty because of their spending.