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3 big Roadblocks to the Astros Continuing their streak as Division Champs post trade deadline, and 1 hope
This years road to the championship will be tougher. Let's look at why.
The Houston Astros have won the American League West 5 of the last 6 years, with the exception of the truncated 2020 season. This trade deadline could put that streak in jeopardy. Similarly the Astros have been in the American League Championship Series 6 years in a row, but there could be a change this year. The Astros are still a very good team, but the competition in the American League has gotten that much better.
The biggest issue that also impacted the trade deadline is that there are only small differences in records of so many teams, leaving a lot of buyers and only a few sellers. The sellers have a very favorable market and so buyers, like the Astros must pay a hefty price to acquire the top players. Additionally, the sellers have dwindled in July as several teams started playing well, and the teams at the top stumbled a bit.
We will look at three big factors from trades that did happen that could jeopardize the Houston Astros dominance streak. Time will tell of course but with both Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez returning, the Astros could be a brand new team over the next two months.
Roadblock 1 - The Rangers are all in
The biggest roadblock to the Astros success is the aggressiveness of the Texas Rangers. The Rangers were all in this past offseason and it has paid dividends, leading them to the best in the West record as of August 7. The Astros are gaining but the Rangers have made some big deadline moves to stop their progress.
The Rangers got both arms and bats in the off-season and just added a few more big time arms to make their sprint towards the playoffs. Max Scherzer will be a huge roadblock for the Astros. Scherzer has plenty of playoff experience including starting two games against the Astros holding them to two runs on each start.
Scherzer was the starter who locked in game seven for the Nationals in their World Series run and so one of the most prolific offenses in baseball now has a stud ace to compliment Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi has a 2.69 ERA this season and it will be a tough 1-2 punch with Scherzer. The Astros offense will have to explode to compete with the tough pitching, which they are capable of. Let’s hope they get hot in October.
Roadblock 2 - The Angels are buyers
In a spin no one would have predicted the Angels are buyers for the trade deadline and have acquired another arm to help them compete. The Houston Astros offense is potent but so are the Angels, led by Ohtani. The Astros pitching staff will have some trouble against the stacked lineup led by the home run hitter Ohtani and Mike Trout. If the Astros staff can get the most out of their young bucks it will be no problem, but there is little room for error.
The bigger worry now is the tough rotation the Angels have created now after making a major trade at the deadline. The Angels rotation was decent but was vastly improved by the acquisition of Giolito. The Astros lineup will now have to face Ohtani, Sandoval, and Giolito for the rest of the season and potentially in the playoffs. Giolito vastly improves their average rotation and makes it more difficult for the Astros to make progress in the AL West and to catch the front runners the Rangers.
The Astros have one series remaining against the Angels and two against the Rangers. If the Astros are to remain in the division and wild card mix they will need to compete and do well against now two very improved teams. CJ Cron, Randal Grichuk, and Giolito will prove challenging for the Astros on the new look Angels squad. It won’t be easy but the Astros are virtually a new team with superstars Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez returning to the lineup as we approach August.
Roadblock 3 - Middling Teams
There is no doubt that this years trade deadline had one of the lowest total selling teams. There have been a few big trades but mostly role players have been swapped and the result will be a very competitive race to the finish for the division and wild card. Teams thought to be sellers turned into buyers and costs were high. The Astros had a tough time adding any players, and those middling teams are why.
The Cubs and the Padres turned into sellers and added players rather than trading key prices thought to be for sale in mid July. Not only do the middling teams hurt sales but they also will be more difficult to play for the remainder of the season, as so many are fighting for a playoff spot. The Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, Rays, Rangers, and Angels all added players and will make the American League playoffs a tough slog.
As it stands the Orioles have the top spot in the American League but 3 teams in both the AL East and West are in the playoff hunt and the Astros will be competing with all of them for 3 Wild Card spots and 2 of them for the AL West crown. The Mariners have also been playing well and are in the hunt so the Astros will not have any games off over the next few months, they will need to play very well to make it into the post-season.
1 hope - The return of JV
Justin Verlander was a team staple for the Astros rotation over the past 5 years and his stats last year show just how big of an impact he has on the team. Last season Verlander led the league in wins, innings, starts, WHIP and won the Cy Young Award. Verlander makes a huge difference to the struggling Astros rotation that has been injury plagued.
In his first start back with the Astros, he did not disappoint. JV went 7 innings and gave up 7 hits, walked 2, struck out 4 and allowed 2 earned runs. The Astros couldn’t have asked for a better start in New York against the Yankees, and he put the team in a position to win. If the Astros ace can continue his old track record as an Astros starter, the future looks bright.
Verlander joins the rotation with some familiar and new faces. Both Framber, Urquidy, and Javier pitched with him last year, as well as Brown for a short spell, but JP France is a new face. Verlander’s veteran leadership will prove valuable as well for all the Astros arms. It will be an exciting end of the 2023 season, and I think JV will help the Astros make it into the postseason.