If you’re from anywhere other than South Texas, it’s likely an exasperating reality to accept that the Astros and postseason baseball have become synonymous. 

With that comes an important question. What does the betting market make of a team that has accomplished the following in the last nine years: Eight playoff berths clinched, seven division titles won, seven straight pennant appearances, and a pair of Commissioner’s Trophies hoisted? 

The business of baseball has made for plenty of roster turnover since that stretch’s peak; they’re rebounding off their worst full-length season since 2017 — an 88-73 record and a sweep to the Tigers in the wild-card series. 

Maybe you thought regression was finally here, though oddsmakers didn’t give. The Astros opened with a price of +1200 at FanDuel last October, which was tied for the sixth-shortest odds in the Majors.

Houston is +600 to win the AL pennant and +1500 to win the World Series at FanDuel while they jockey for supremacy in the AL West with the burgeoning Mariners. 

Considering Yordan Alvarez’s indefinite return, the time is ripe to buy low on a pitching staff that ranks No. 2 overall in xERA (3.72) and xFIP (3.90) per FanGraphs. 

Hunter Brown’s Cy Young campaign (2.27 ERA and 97th percentile in average exit velocity) is backed by Framber Valdez’s (3.59 ERA) elite acumen for groundballs, headlining another durable rotation.

It’s not the same offense that achieved the lion’s share of their success, but if there are two attributes to be bullish on in the playoffs, it’s experience and pitching.

Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.