Looking at the Houston Astros in a vacuum, it's easy to see that the club is not up to the level of juggernauts from the past. The roster is aging, the bloated contracts have prevented them from adequately filling some holes, and questionable decisions threaten to derail things further.
Even the good, like signing Tatsuya Imai, brings with it a ton of uncertainty alongside the fanfare. But when you expand out from that bubble, things start to look a little brighter.
Many of these same concerns existed last season, and though it ended bitterly, Houston almost survived a tremendous onslaught of injuries that would have threatened even the deepest of rosters.