Obviously, many things went right for the Astros en route to winning the World Series last year. The bullpen, most of the time, was reliable. The starting rotation was one of the best. The front office pulled off an 11th-hour trade for Justin Verlander. But it was their offense that qualified as historic.
My offensive statistic of choice is wRC+, or weighted runs created plus. It puts everything on a scale where 100 is average, and something higher than that is better than average. Last season's Astros finished with a team wRC+ of 121, which means they hit 21 percent better than the average offense -- the highest mark for any team since the 1931 Yankees (124 wRC+). It was the fourth-highest mark for any team since the turn of the previous century. The Astros could pitch, but more than anything else, the Astros could hit.
Of course, it's a new year with new rosters. The Astros have returned a similar team, but do they again feature the best-hitting lineup? I'm ranking lineups based on what I expect players to do from this point forward. I've considered both performances to date and rest-of-season projections. There's no exact formula, but it's not just a bunch of gut feelings. That out of the way, let's go 1 through 30 -- and get into why the Astros aren't the No. 1 team anymore.
