Houston Astros Rumors: 4 reasons why the team will win the AL West in 2019
By T.A. Mock
Healthy stars ready to lead the way
In 2017, the Houston Astros were powered by a historic offense that wound up leading them to a World Series championship. When I say historic, I literally mean historic. According to the advanced metric wRC+ (Weight Runs Created, adjusted for park and league), the Astros had the 8th best offense of all-time.
Contrast to 2018, the Astros were led by a historic pitching staff to a loss in the ALCS. The offense was still good but it was closer to average than elite. Don’t get me wrong, they were still very good, especially Alex Bregman who had an incredible year. But, several guys did have down years.
In addition to struggling more, a lot of the key guys to the Astros potent offense spent a chunk of the season injured. This includes a portion of the season in which the Astros were without three of their best players at the same time in Altuve, Correa, and Springer.
Trending. Three players with the most to gain in Spring Training. light
Altuve, Bregman, and Correa all had surgeries in the offseason to overcome various maladies in addition to recovering from other injuries. Springer, fortunately, did not have to go through the same process but still had some healing up to do.
Fast forward to the week before Spring Training, the offensive core seems to be nearly 100% healthy and if they’re not quite there, they will be by the time the regular season kicks off in April. Altuve should bounce back after a “down” year, Bregman will look to build off of his breakout campaign, Correa will attempt to bounce back after a severely injury-plagued season.
On top of those guys getting healthy, the addition of Michael Brantley is sure to be a phenomenal addition to the lineup. He’ll settle in somewhere in the top five spots of the order, likely in the 3-5 range. An offensive with that deadly of a top five is sure to be elite and carry the team far into the postseason.