After confounding commentators, fans and even members of their own roster by standing pat at the trading deadline, the front office of the Houston Astros managed to snag the services of Justin Verlander from Detroit on the final day of August. At the time, the Astros had the best record in the American League, so the addition of Verlander would have seemed to make Houston the odds-on favorite to represent the AL in the World Series.
Skip ahead five weeks to the present, and even though Verlander, Thursday's starter, pitched spectacularly for Houston, it's the Indians who are assigned the shortest odds to win the pennant, with some suggesting that the Astros will have a tough task just getting to the ALCS. That's the reality of possibly facing Chris Sale twice in a best-of-five series.
While the rest of Boston's rotation has been a weak spot all season, Sale has been everything fans and management could have possibly hoped for when they acquired the lefty for a trove of prospects over the winter. Sale rewarded that confidence by turning in a 2.90 ERA while leading the majors in innings pitched, strikeouts and fielding independent pitching (FIP), which suggests Sale flashed the best skill set of any starter in baseball in 2017.