Houston Astros: Five most important players to the 2018 season

Justin Verlander, SP

Any Houston Astros fan that has even moderately paid attention to what the team has done with past 14ish months knows the value and importance of Justin Verlander. Ever since the team flipped a literal last-second trade for him, Verlander turned the Astros from a great team into a true monster.

Without Verlander, it’s hard to see the 2017 Astros finish the season as strong as they did without him as he was simply lights out. It’s also hard to see them dismantling the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers last year without Verlander.

But, we’re not here to talk about what Verlander did for last year’s Astros, we’re here to discuss how important he was to the 2018 Astros, and, boy, how important was he. Verlander continued in the career resurgence he started in 2017 with the Astros and produced one of the most dominant seasons the Astros and the entire league have ever seen.

Like I mentioned previously, the Astros won 65% of the starts that Verlander made which isn’t as good as Cole but is still pretty darn good. Verlander carried a pitching staff that was historically great, he proved leadership that can’t be measured by any stat and set the tone for this staff with a Cy Young caliber year.

Verlander held the team to a higher standard. He wasn’t okay with simple mistakes, as evidenced with him berating Max Stassi for not calling a good game which is probably one of the reasons Jeff Luhnow went out and Martin Maldonado. Simply put, Verlander elevates this team as almost no one else can.