3 big Roadblocks to the Astros Continuing their streak as Division Champs post trade deadline, and 1 hope

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.