HOUSTON -- The division series round is upon us, and it's a high-powered eight-team bracket -- the most high-powered ever, in fact. The eight teams still in the running for the 2019 World Series won a combined 794 games during the regular season. That's more than any other divisional round in postseason history, and four more wins than in 2002. A few more wins here and there and we'd be looking at an LDS round in which the average team won 100 games.
Even though we've never seen such fierce competition this time of the year, there is still one team that has risen above the rest in the eyes of the oddsmakers, prognosticators and MLB pundits: the Houston Astros.