A few innings into Friday night’s game against the Angels, the Astros playoff chances had gone from bleak to not bad. Cleveland and Detroit had both lost and the Astros were up 3-0 and if they held on, they would be in a tie (but without the tiebreakers) with both competitors.

The Mariners – Astros series has been one that has been circled on the fans’ calendars for a while, especially since the Mariners cut a seven-game lead back into something more palatable around the first week of August. Now that it is here, there are certain things this series may or may not mean.

One of the things that occurred to me is how much the top ten of the Astros players have changed since last year. I know that WAR is not everyone’s cup of tea, but in general it gives a rough comparison of relative performance for both pitchers and position players.