Heading into the 2023 MLB season, the one thing that experts around the game seem to be able to agree on is that, as of right now, despite what's been a semi-tumultuous trying spring, the Houston Astros reside at the top of any subjective power ranking of the 30 Major League Baseball teams.

You can check ESPN.com, which projects the Astros for a 92-70 record this season and a 78 percent chance of making the playoffs. You can check The Athletic, which has the Astros No. 1 and heaps some really flattering praise on opening day starter Framber Valdez. Finally, you can check out MLB.com, which also has the Astros at the top.

In short, it's a good time to be an Astros fan, even if we are starting the season with Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers, and Michael Brantley on the injured list. That brings us to our purpose for this post — with the season set to jump off this evening, with the Astros receiving their World Series rings and taking on the Chicago White Sox, here are the four biggest current questions surrounding your favorite baseball team:

Will the Lance McCullers' arm problems be something the Astros need to start planning for?
Since making the All Star team for the only time in his career, here is how things have gone for Lance McCullers. He was injured for most of the second half of 2017, before coming back to pitch well in a hybrid role in the postseason. He finished 2018 pitching with a torn UCL that forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss all of 2019. In 2020, the COVID season he was fully healthy! Yay! In 2021, McCullers strained his arm in the postseason and missed the ALCS, World Series, and the first half of 2022. Now, in 2023, he strained his elbow in spring training, and will start the season on the injured list. Lance is "died in the wool" Houston, and at $17 million per year, if he could ever stay healthy, he's a bargain, but they may have to start figuring out a Plan B with him.

When does Jose Altuve become Jose Altuve again?
The other big injury to start the season is Altuve's broken thumb he suffered in the World Baseball Classic on a pitch against the United States. He recently had surgery on the thumb, and it will be roughly two months until he can resume baseball activities. That's really just the beginning of this saga. From the two month mark, it's fair to wonder when Altuve is able to play in a Major League game again, and above and beyond that, how long it will take him to adapt to the new pitch clock, which requires hitters to be in the batter's box with eight seconds left on the timer. Altuve struggled under these rules early in spring training, and now he will have to further his adaptation to the rules in a minor league rehab stint and the early  part of his MLB return. Not optimal.

Which Astro gets most sideways with the new rules?
The easy answer to this just came from the previous question — Altuve early in his return. However, which non-Altuve players are of the biggest concern due to the new rules. The rules banning the infield shifts actually help Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez as left handed hitters. The two prime possibilities for the pitch clock and shift rules somehow damaging their respective games are Luis Garcia, who now must change his whole delivery, and Framber Valdez, whose propensity to induce ground balls makes the shift ban problematic. Those two are the primary ones to keep an eye on.

How much ground has the rest of the AL West made up?
I mentioned earlier that the Astros project on ESPN.com as a 92-win team. That would be well below the 100-plus wins they've garnered in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. (In 2020, the season was only 60 games, and in 2021, they won 95 games.) The AL West is tightening up, with the Mariners (86 win projection)  looking like a perennial playoff team. The Rangers (83 win projection) make big moves for a second offseason in a row, bringing in Jacob de Grom as their new ace. Someday the rest of the Angels (79 win projection) will catch up to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, we think. In other words, the division is still owned by the Astros, but there WILL be meaningful games in September.

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