It is not evidence of anything in particular, let alone anything sinister, that a World Series champion would hit better than a team that finished in third place. Players improve, and lineups change, and both of those things happened here.

/ what I really dislike about this writer's approach is that Stat heads predicted that the Astros, because of their remade roster, would strike out far far less than the prior season - and they nailed those predictions. Yet the implocation that follows is it was just cheating. Untrue.