Astro Boy

A lot has been said about the 2017 Astros, and for good reason- they've managed to stay on top since April, and have been one of the most dominant, intimidating, yet fun to watch, teams of the year. But as Altuve, Correa, Springer and Keuchel have hogged the spotlight, not a lot has been said of their young third baseman, Alex Bregman.

Initially, I was skeptical- Bregman began the season with below average, and trailing power hitters like Brian McCann in terms of dominance. But as the real picture began to form, Bregman's hinted status as a five-tool player began to appear, and the insane infield combo of Gurriel-Altuve-Correa-Bregman began to take the entire league by storm.

Bregman's doing exactly what Carlos Correa did when he came up- he hit, he played decent infield, he was smart with the ball, and he was able to show experience despite being relatively new to the bigs. On a team where some players are nearing 40 and aren't proving their worth, it helps to know what one's doing, even at 23 or so. Bregman's 2017 season has dwarfed his rookie year from last year, and his efforts this year are helping the Astros become an even stronger playoff threat than they were in 2015.

The problem with hitting the postseason will be combat inevitability. It's very easy to predict the Astros to win the whole thing, but last year we all thought the Rangers would be WS-bound, and look how well that turned out. The only way the BEST team becomes the WINNING team at the end, is if they keep the current momentum going until the season stops. If that momentum slips even the slightest bit, some other guy can slip in and take the glory for themselves, without earning it.

In order for the Astros to be standing there in November, they're gonna need to keep this insanely good 2017 season going up until the end. I know they can...I hope they can.

Coming Tonight: His team's got a shot at the wild card, and he's pitching in a place where pitching has usually failed. But he can do it. He's German. Okay...he's Venezuelan, but he's German.