Jose Altuve is at it again, folks, and the Houston Astros are reaping the rewards of yet another fine season from their second baseman.
Remember when Aaron Judge ruled the baseball world all of two weeks ago and nobody thought that he could be caught in the race for the AL MVP? Well Jose Altuve has caught and passed the Yanks’ rookie in the WAR chase and currently has a 5.6 fWAR while the monster among men (especially Altuve) stands in second in baseball at 5.4.
The big reason for Altuve’s surge has been the month that he’s having in July. Sure his four home runs are tied for the 46th most in baseball this month, but he’s batting over .500, currently at .506, in July. Coming into the month he was batting .330, and now that average sits at .369.
While this is almost par for the course for Altuve, he’s still not getting love from some of the non-baseball outlets. That outlet has four letters as its name and the show that I am about to mention has three letters.
So I was watching let’s call it the “Football Season All The Time Network” and I want to say that there was a discussion being had as to whether Altuve was the best player in baseball. Could be off here, because the host’s response was a bit nuts. They said “Jose Altuve isn’t even the third best player on his own team!” The three that were mentioned as being better than him?
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- Carlos Correa. Ok, I can see where you’re coming from. He’s right at the top in baseball in WAR (7th overall), has 20 homers and has been touted as a great player for years now. There could be a legitimate debate here.
- George Springer. Again, not a bad choice. Springer has 27 dingers and sits right behind Correa in the WAR chase. He’s also an extremely likable fellow.
- Marwin freaking Gonzalez. No offense to Marwin Gonzalez, who has been tremendous for the Houston Astros this season with his 19 homers and 61 RBI, but he falls shy of Altuve by nearly three wins in the WAR race and certainly doesn’t have the pedigree that Altuve has.
The obvious question that comes to mind when his current run is brought up is whether or not Jose Altuve can bring that average up to the .400 mark by the end of the season. That may not be so easy, as his BABIP for the season is sitting at .397, and while he is a speedy player, he’ll likely have to regress back towards the mean at some point just like Aaron Judge has done since the break. That BABIP is also sitting at .541 this month which is absurdly high.
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Just because Jose Altuve is more than likely not going to hit .400 this season, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deserve some praise. Definitely more than he is receiving on the national circuit.
With Correa out for a few more weeks and George Springer just landing on the disabled list, Altuve is easily the best healthy player on the team right now, outside of Marwin Gonzalez. Maybe the pair will finally start to get their due as the Astros keep on rolling into August.