Houston Astros: Fuhgeddaboudit, Jose Altuve Will Never Win Anything
For all the good things that he is, and it’s a lot, Jose Altuve will never win anything. And that includes the Most Valuable Player award in the American League for which he is one of this year’s finalists. Too bad, but that’s the way baseball is these days.
Just for kicks someday, pull up the AL MVP winners over the years and scroll through the list. A theme will immediately jump out at you. Not only will you not find the name Jose Altuve, but you’ll need to search hard to find players like Jose Altuve on the list of winners.
The Value of Jose Altuve
And the main reason for that is that two-thirds of Altuve’s hits last year and almost three-quarters of his career hits have been singles. And baseball simply doesn’t care about singles anymore. And for the most part, fans don’t either.
What baseball rewards with awards and pays big money for is the home run and what they call run production. The ones who can put a crooked number on the board with one swing of the bat, regardless of the fact that one out every three times they walk up to the plate, they walk back not having made contact with the ball.
And never mind the fact that Jose Altuve either scored (108) or drove in (96) almost 30 percent of his team’s 724 runs. And never mind that he makes contact nine of every ten at bats or that he managed to get on base 40 percent of the time last year.
And if we dig deeper, we could find even more numbers to show his “value”. But it wouldn’t matter because Jose Altuve and players like him will never win anything.
The Case for Two Awards
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
There has always been controversy about the MVP award and whether there should be two awards instead of just one. One called the MVP for the truly most valuable player and another called the “Player of the Year” for the best performer of the season. And those who argue for that usually do so because of the Jose Altuves of the baseball world.
When you think about it, it makes sense and maybe that’s why it hasn’t happened yet. But there should be a distinction between what I’ll call the “Entertainer of the Year,” the guy who one out of every 12 times he comes to the plate lifts one high into the night sky drawing the oohs and aahs of the crowd until it finally lands back on the planet. Yes, a distinction between that guy and the player who produces runs of a different kind by playing seamless defense, getting on base, and scoring the run that the other guy drives in.
Now, I realize that Jose Altuve is one of the finalists in this year’s MVP vote (Mike Trout and Mookie Betts are the two others) that will be announced tonight. And that I could be hearing it from everyone if Altuve is selected. And if that happens, wonderful!
Next: More Valuable - Elite Bullpen or Elite Rotation?
But I seriously doubt it will play out that way. And that’s not to say that Jose Altuve is a better player than Mike Trout, because he isn’t. It’s just to say that the Jose Altuves of the baseball world deserve more recognition. Because along with Trout, Altuve is writing his ticket to Cooperstown, too.