Dallas Keuchel thinks that his team’s championship defense this coming season will go at least slightly better than that of their predecessors.
The Houston Astros lefty was speaking to the Washington Post’s Dave Sheinin on Thursday when the topic of the Chicago Cubs and their post-World Series “hangover” last season was brought up.
“We’re not the Cubs,” he shot back. “I firmly believe we have better players.”
After their title-winning 2016 campaign, the Cubs underwhelmed in 2017 with 11 fewer regular season wins and a loss in five games to the Dodgers in the NLCS. As for the Astros, who are fresh off their seven-game World Series victory over those very same Dodgers in November, they seem to have a stable young core capable of sustained winning for the foreseeable future. Granted, that is the same argument many made about the Cubs at this time last year, but maybe Houston will fare better given the upgrades they made this winter.
