I think Bagwell is probably better because he hit a lot of homeruns and drew a lot of walks, but as a pure hitter I can't think of a better Astros. He is going to probably get to 200 hits for the 4th time. There is only one Astros who has done it once and that is Biggio. He is the only guy in Astros history to win a batting tittle and this will likely be his 3rd. At the pace he is on I think he is likely the Astros next HOF player. His path is very similar to JD Martinez who wasn't too good his first three years and then became a star. Its kind of interesting they both came up at roughly the same time.
I say yes... on his way to leading the league in hits for the 4th consecutive season... and he's hitting .507 this month. Jesus... little man is a hit machine. He's like our pocket-sized version of Tony Gwynn.
Not yet but he's definitely close. I disagree that his path is comparable to JD Martinez. Altuve was clearly a better hitter than Martinez and no one batted an eye when the Astros let him go for nothing.
Depends on how you define hitter. He's unquestionably the best we've ever had at generating hits. I don't know who else I can even make a case for in that regard. But Bagwell was a more productive hitter, and he did it for longer. Having said that, this last year and a half he's even hitting at Bagwell levels of productivity when you consider the era Baggy played in.
I mean, he's still playing. He's not even in the latter half of his career. But, assuming he doesn't get injured or fall into a bizarre slump he can't get out of (the latter seems highly unlikely), he's on pace to easily grab that title. He can hit for power, singles, to the infield, to every part of the ballpark, stretch hits with his speed, and he has a great eye so he's not going to go down swinging to an outside slider constantly like Biggio used to. Baggie's like poor Ken Griffey, Jr.; his records could have been off the charts but for injury, maybe only surpassed by by KG in a universe where they're healthy most of their careers. So, we'll never quite know with Bagwell, but it's nice to see that he'll be getting into Cooperstown within a week. Seriously, though, Altuve is the most versatile and freakishly-good hitter I've ever seen in decades of watching the 'Stros. Barring injury, he will shatter all sorts of team records. I hope he stays here forever.
Maybe one day. He is the best hitter in Astros history in terms of average and accumulating hits, but as a total and complete hitter, I can't put him above Bagwell and Berkman, but that is mostly due to longevity right now. Those guys did it for a long time in Astros uniforms. The only player in Astros history I can think of being similar to Altuve hitting wise is Moises Alou with Jose Cruz being just under that (more like Altuve of 2014/2015). I batted an eye, simply because they had no real reason to give him his full release other than to be nice to JD. I was bothered they didn't even really give him a chance that final spring training. Amazingly, Altuve and Biggio's 1st 3 years lineup very similar. Altuve: .285/.323/.377 Biggio: .261/.330/.369 Biggio's career didn't really take off until year 6, which really fits with Altuve's breakout last year, in his 6th season. But the big difference is, Altuve had already taken a leap 2 years earlier that put him close to Biggio's prime level and now this 2nd breakout is Altuve becoming a better player than Biggio ever was.
What I think: 1. Altuve 2. Bagwell 3. Cruz 4. Berkman 5. Cedeno Who I trust the most in High leverage: 1. Bagwell 2. Cruz 3. Puhl 4. Altuve 5. Biggio Who I liked watching: 1. Cruz 2. Bagwell 3. Puhl 4. Doran 5. Biggio Best Batting Stance: 1. Cruz 2. Bagwell 3. J. Morgan 4. C. Reynolds 5. Biggio 6. Puhl 7. Bass 8. Eusebio 9. G. Davis 10. Pence 11. Alou 12. C. Everett 13. C. Gomez 14. Lamb 15. Berkman
Altuve has almost 7 seasons completed. I compared them to Bagwell's 1st 7 seasons. Player - AGE- GAMES- ABS- HITS- TB -BAVG- BB- SO- Bagwell - 29yo- 1008 - 3657- 1112- 1959- .304- 627- 689- Altuve - 27yo- 925 -3739- 1184- 1685- .317- 246- 429- As excepted Bags with power (in the Dome I might add) but Altuve has 2 years of youth on Bags at this point.
Bagwell's OBP was also significantly higher. He posted a .409 OBP over those first 7 years. Even if you remove Tuve's first 3 seasons, his OBP over the last 4 years is only .385. In his prime from 94-00 Baggy posted an absurd .433 OBP. That's a high standard to reach, but over this last year and a half I'm coming to the realization that Altuve may in fact be that good. But it's still a short burst compared to the awesomeness in the 90's that Bagwell displayed.
Bagwell takes it for the moment, but that moment is fleeting. Altuve with his uncanny ability to not strikeout and be patient still comes nowhere close to Bag's SO/BA ratio. 72 less hits but almost 300 more TB. I think if you include HR, RBI, SB totals the gap between Bagwell and Altuve widens. We were spoiled with Bagwell, it's unfortunate no one outside of the Lone Star State realized how good he was. Travesty he wasn't a first ballot HOF, he was better than Frank Thomas.
There is no arguing that postseason. But overall, in the clutch, I'm going with Bagwell as far as trust purely from an emotional standpoint.
Just saw a tweet from Jake Kaplan that Altuve has 37 hits in his last 68 AB's...no one has done that since Rogers Hornsby in 1923.
If we can get him to re-sign. He should be our #1 priority of the current core with Correa #2. Both are going to the HOF if they stay healthy. Edit: I can't help but wonder if he might be the 3rd member of the 4000 hit club
I remember getting into email battles with charlie p back from 2013 through most of 2015. He called altuve a carnival act. Say what you want about charlie but he answers long emails and finally came around to love altuve just before he got fired. which was a shame. Best hitters for me are Baggie, tuve and big puma, different order on any given day.
