Who would have thought we would find the Houston Astros sitting top of the AL West, with the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners sitting bottom-two in the division coming into the season? While Oakland and Seattle both clearly have been under-performing, I think it's just as obvious that Houston has over-performed.
With the second worst batting average in the major leagues (.233) it's almost a miracle we find them anywhere near the top of the table as they've relied heavily on the long-ball, leading the majors with 65 home-runs on the year. I doubt that's sustainable, and I don't think we'll find Houston up there come the end of the season. But when can we expect them to start dropping off?
Perhaps not just yet. They may have lost the opener of a three-game set at Baltimore last night despite having their ace Dallas Keuchel on the mound, but they have a couple of manageable series coming up against the White Sox x 2, the Orioles again and the Blue Jays before facing the Mariners for a three-game set June 12-14. I'm expecting plenty of good spots to back the Astros up until then, but from mid-June and forward I would be very cautious backing the them unless their batting numbers were to get significantly better.
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