Well, from a glass-half-empty viewpoint, it could be that they're going with how many question marks each team's roster has going into 2022. The Astros might lose Correa, Bregman was terrible most of the year and just had surgery - will he be back to 2019 form? LMJ missed the ALCS and the WS injured - will he be back to ace form in '22? Greinke appears to be done, that's your top 2 arms from the beginning of 2021 with question marks - those would be fairly big questions on any team - 3B and SS and SP1 and SP2 from a year ago in question. Plus as much as I love Yuli, he's about to turn 38, the fountain of youth is going to run out at some point.
The Giants are probably 8th because a lot of people thought a lot of their guys were having once in a lifetime seasons all at once, and they flamed out in the playoffs. Their undisputed leader announces his retirement, they rented Kris Bryant, and now he's a FA, Gausman's a free agent coming off a year where he led the league in starts, was an All-Star, and had a 2.81 ERA, and Brandon Belt's a free agent after hitting 29 HR and slugging .597 in 100 games. Crawford was amazing at SS and I loved him in fantasy baseball but he'll be 35 next year and their 2B will be 34. They might legit start the season with different guys at C, 1B, and 3B. That's not good. They sort of look like the mid 2000s Astros, where they keep contending year after year and then everyone gets old and they drop off the face of the planet.
