IMO, it comes down to the pen and the up and coming. What I mean by up and coming is how well does Pena, whoever is in center field, Yordan and Kyle and such do. I expect the defense to be about the same. More errors at SS probably. With this team, I have learned anything could happen. The starters could suck and the relievers save the season. McCullers wins the Cy Young. The young guys could slump. They could bomb away. I will go with 91. Might seem low, but Fangraphs sayin' 89. https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Standings
On a side note, Fangraphs has the 107 win 2021 Giants winning 84 this year. I don't keep up with them much, but a 23 game drop? They have a fire sale?
Going a little high and say 97. Pena has a strong, if unspectacular, rookie season, but Bregman and Yordan have a big years to offset the Correa loss and regression from Yuli. Starting pitching is more or less similar to last season, but the bullpen is more stable overall and at least one of our young arms break out.
94-95 seems about right for me. I'm a little to a lot over on almost every Astros SP versus FanGraphs numbers. Also, I think there is a decent chance that Leon's problems in AAA last year were almost completely his injury sapping his power.
Projections usually avoid extremes and are very conservative with win totals. Teams are rarely projected to win 100 or lose 100, with 94 currently being the highest projected win total this season. They have us projected to be tied for the 5th best team in baseball, which is about right. The 5th best team in baseball usually wins about 95 games.
I’ve got 98 since someone already had my 97. I’d be a little disappointed with less than 95- unless the team gets bit hard by the injury bug. This should be a really really good team. I’m looking forward to watching some things. Yordan is a drop everything and watch plate appearance for me. I love watching Altuve play. Brantley with a guy in scoring position is a fun watch. It’d be nice if Bergmans production got back to matching his opinion of himself. I fully expect JV to be top 10 in the Cy Young race and I’d bet on top 5. Be interesting to watch Peña- can he be league average? I have a lot of stock in Whitley and looks like I can see if that was a good investment or not this year as I expect him up.
If 3 of the big 4 stay healthy the majority of the year, they’ll have the best offense in baseball (again).
I don't see Alex hitting 40 again. I got Yordan and Tucker with 40. Alvarez and Bregman 30-35 each. Gurriel hits 24-28. 40 from the 3 CFers but not all while playing CF. Bregman gets 50 doubles.
They shock MLB 102 wins.Out pitch, hit and field everyone. They spank everyone in the west including our little brother that lives in Arlington with his new toys. Send the Yankees home again with Cashman crying because JV wins 19 games and both vs the Yankees in the playoffs. Altuve gets over 200 hits and 27 home runs 108 RBI scores 119 runs and wins the MVP. Pena 2nd in ROY. The young pitch steps up and gets us back to the Fall Classic. Yes it's spring so my hope is in full command.
99 Wins. Brown comes up and sticks before McCullers is ready to return. LMJ could reprise his role in the pen during the play offs.
Just sweep the Yankees and Dodgers, and make the playoffs, and I'll be happy with the regular season. Then in the playoffs, face the Yankees and show no mercy. Destroy. Humiliate. Show that titty-baby GM over there what "doing it the 'right' way" looks like, and give him a tissue as we celebrate on his home field. Again.
To think through how the removal of Correa's production will impact the team, let's go back and look at a down year for Correa. In 2018, Correa batted .239 and hit for an OPS of .728. Pena has a great chance at besting those numbers. Gurriel also had a down year in 2018 from an OPS standpoint, hitting .751. The Astros won 103 games. The 2018 starting pitching rotation was very strong, with Verlander, Cole, Morton, McCullers, and Keuchel. We won't be that good on the mound this year, but we have a very nice rotation of playoff-tested pitchers and what should be a superior bullpen than in 2018.
Realistically I think 93-94, but they could be pushing 100 win season again if things fall just right.