Take away the Astros, and this is the weakest American League I can remember

Forgive me as an Astro fan for not paying serious attention to AL standings until 2015. But still, in every season since we've been in contention, there has been at least one AL team that I didn't want to face.

In 2015, it was the Blue Jays. In 2017, it was the Indians. In 2018, it was the Red Sox. In 2019, it was the Yankees. In 2020, it was the Rays. In 2021, it was the Rays again.

This year, there is no such team in the AL that I desperately want us to avoid. Sure, any team can beat us or take us to 7 games, just like the Red Sox won 4 out of 6 games against us this year. Any playoff team can turn out to be better than expected like the Braves last year. I just won't have an "oh s**t, we're screwed" reaction to facing any of these teams.

When I looked up the Fangraphs World Series projections, I noticed that the Mets and Dodgers win the World Series in more projections than the Astros. That's actually because the AL has fewer elite teams. The Guardians win the ALCS 5.8% of the time, but only win the World Series 1.6% of the time. For the Mariners, it's 10.8% and 4.3% respectively. So, the Astros are the only AL team that appears to be competitive (33.3, 15.8%) if they make it to the World Series. If the AL is going to be able to avoid losing the 4th straight World Series to the NL, it will likely have to be the Astros who make it.