Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros currently leads the American League in batting with a .340 average. Apparently, the Astros brass has decided to sit the All-Star second baseman in today’s final game of the 2014 season. This is according to Evan Drelich of the Houston Chronicle.
A couple of interesting tweets from Brian McTaggart who covers the Astros for MLB.com.
Altuve said he was told he wasn't playing in a meeting with manager, GM "and three other people I don't know."
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) September 28, 2014
Tom Lawless said he came to park with Altuve in lineup. Altuve told not playing in meeting with Luhnow, Stearns, Mallee, Lawless & Altuve
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) September 28, 2014
So, interim manager Tom Lawless wasn’t in on the decision either. Of course, the conjecture is that the ‘Stros are sitting Altuve for the sake of winning the American League batting crown. That doesn’t sit well with some folks, especially Marc Carig of Newsday.
Sitting Jose Altuve for the sake of winning the batting title is a lame ass move by the Astros.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) September 28, 2014
It’s not like this move hasn’t been done before. I recall Jose Reyes even going as far as bunting in the game’s first inning to gain a hit on the season’s final day back in 2011. After that, he was pulled from the game and won the NL crown by five points over Ryan Braun. Braun played the entire final game, going 0-for-4 to slide to a BA of .332.
Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers sits behind Altuve in the AL batting race at .337. However, if we take this out to the 100,000ths, Altuve is at .33993 and Martinez is at .33691. Even if Martinez goes 3-for-4 today, his average would be at .33986, thus still falling short. A 4-for-5 day would give Martinez the title at .34103.
Of course, if Altuve did play and experienced a hitless game, that would obviously provide Martinez an easier opportunity to take the title. The Astros brass has greatly reduced that possibility.