The Astros are going to be a formidable opponent should we get to face them in the ALCS (I know, let's get past our ALDS bugaboo first). Danny Ayala had an incredible first year for them with his 166 RBI the most in a single season over the last 103 years and the 12th-best all-time.
The team stats:
This kind of looks like most of other seasons, with a dominant offense, solid pitching, and terrible defense. As has been chronicled, the defense was very good in the first half but terrible in the second, with the loss of gold glover Dan Gregory in CF the primary reason. Also we've always been #1 or #2 in bullpen ERA, but dropped to 5th as the those woes of late have been well-chronicled too. Also outside of our late 8-game win streak in September, we were only 3 games over .500 post-ASB.
The hitting stats:
How about Seth Williams? I saw him as a possible Jaiden Hardaway 2.0, and aside from J-Hard's otherwordly skill at drawing walks he was. Only Ichiro Suzuki and Shoeless Joe Jackson had more hits in their rookie seasons than Williams, and Ichiro was already an established pro. Speaking of effective rookies, Mike Willis had a nice maiden campaign as well while Josh Alexander followed up his MVP season with another MVP-worthy one (although he'll finished way down the list this year), joining Williams on 200 hits. Josh Beckett should have won the batting title if not for a late-season injury which left him just short of qualifying, another impressive turn in his first year as a regular. Finally how about Dan Gregory at 3.9 WAR despite playing less than half a season?
The pitching stats:
The Big 4 (Jackson, Brockman, Romero, Mendoza) were the envy of MLB (a combined 74-16) and although the 5th starter combo of Willard and Perez was mediocre, they pitched well in relief which is where they'll be for the playoffs.
Postseason roster: Tony Cordova, Doug Johns and Jordan Perez were left off, with Kevin Morley on as the backup catcher, which is where he would have been all season had Cordova not been out of options. Perez was the toughest cut but we already had Jon Harbour and Vinny Willard for long relief and I chose to go with Doug Combs instead.
And this happened for the third straight month:
Williams also won for April, giving him the award in 4 of the season's 6 months.