Yeah, biggest threat for Houston will just be the hangover.
They probably won't suffer from it as much as the Cubs did because the media crush over the Cubs breaking the curse was so magnified, but it's very apparent that in modern MLB this hangover effect is not trivial.
Aside from just the physical and emotional drain on the championship team, there's also clearly some concerted efforts by the opposition to scout the everloving hell out of every aspect of their team to look for weaknesses to exploit. The pitching/defensive/offensive approach of teams against the Cubs this year (by remotely competent teams) was just relentlessly effective.
Altuve is a freak and probably will still put up freakish numbers. But some of those other guys had better be ready to make some adjustments next year, because the rest of baseball is certainly going to adjust to them.
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In response to this post by CPRVHokie)
Posted: 11/02/2017 at 2:45PM