This has to be taken with a grain of salt.
1. If I recall well, 3 weeks ago or so, we were over the Stros in RDiff. The thing is, while Cora has been giving up games plus no Sale & no ERod in recent weeks, Stros have been playing at full capacity.
2. Regarding SP, a healthy Sale is better than Verlader —pitch by pitch. Price is arguably the best pitcher of the second half, and pitched better than Morton last time; in fact, Morton was kind of lucky —we hit him well. Also, we own Keuchel, remember last time? he was pounded and could be worse. He was lucky too. IMO he is overrated —LOB% and BABIP don’t lie through his career. You know what I think of Porcello, but I’d rather him over Dallas Keuchel any day of the week.
3. Regarding the BP, if you take out of the equation bums like Pomeranz, Kelly, Hembree, Thorn, etc. our BP match them pretty well —not to mention our closer is arguably the best entering into the POs.
4. Our offense in the top is better with 2 legit MVPs. Mookie- Benny- Pearce- JD-XB is a better nucleo. The bottom, while is a crap shot —if hot— is better as well Kinsler-Nuñez/Devers-JBJ. Also, we have a couple of great utility players in Holt and SWI who have shown that can hit in clutch situations.
5. Regarding Defense, our defense is the best of the majors if you don’t line up Devers. Kinsler at second is vintage Pedroia, and Leon catches very well our top 2 and calls the games like nobody else in the majors. Our CF and RF are gold gloves caliber players.
Also, we have the HFA, and on paper we will face a weaker opponent in the divisions and will be more rested in a potential ALCS series against them.
Said that, I’ll say it again. We will win the WS. So... bring me the Astros or whoever, we are set to win it all.