The Astros out-performed most pre-season expectations this year.
Sure, most prognosticators had them winning the AL West, although Sports Illustrated gave the crown to the Angels. But to most prognosticators, 90 wins seemed near the ceiling for the Springer-less, Verlander-less 2021 Astros.
Even our home-team-oriented staff here at TCB under-rated the Stros. On March 31st, our Starting Nine (eleven) staff predicted anywhere from 88 to 95 wins, the average coming out to 92.
(Kudos to Exile in St. Louis for predicting the actual number of wins, 95, sticking his neck out with the highest number predicted by anyone else)
In the Starting Nine article, these were the main concerns the caused our staff to predict a number about 10 wins lower than the average from the previous three full seasons.