Sometimes a team just happens to have a handful of players that all have career years at the same time: Crawford, Posey, Belt. I'm not so sure something has to give, and certainly that Crawford is a free agent after 2021 and Posey and Belt have expensive club options for 22 which are likely to be declined probably has a little bit to do with it. As for their pitching, I think it was probably underrated when the year began. DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto all have long track records of being good starting pitchers, but injury prone. To date, they've been able to stay healthy. Gausman could have some regression in him, but he's been really good since his disastrous half season with Atlanta in 2019 (214 IP, 265 K, 4:1 K:B ratio, and a WHIP of 1.01) and also will get real paid after the season.