Going into today, Ian Desmond arguably had just as good of a month...and Brian Dozier too (both had 7 HR, which significantly raised their SLG and OPS), but also werent too shabby with getting hits (Desmond with 39 and Dozier with 35). The 4 hit game today for Altuve may have tilted things in his favor.
We're still all talking about Mike Trout, right? No offense, but don't ever ****ing try and explain that team to me again. I was season tickets and that year killed me more than '86.
That was after or during 2013, right? I hope? He was a different player those first couple of years but damn did he bust out and become great after that. Everyone who thought Jose Altuve would become a batting champ by age 24, MVP candidate by age 26, raise your hand.
Yeah no one predicted this. But if you pulled your inner DD or BTG you could make this into a 20 page argument.
Pretty sure that was last year...unless Luhnow had the foresight to say those comments prior to even drafting Kemp! (only drafted in 2013). The good batting average was always plausible as it was clear to anybody early on that he had a supreme ability to make contact...but the leap he's made this year is one of those rare "putting it all together" type runs. Like Bagwell's 94, Hakeem's 92, Watt's 2012. This may just be a career year where it finally all clicked...then again, we all said that in 2014.
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With no game, probably not, but the day is young. I'm sure they'll be plenty of opportunites for exercise during the games this weekend.
'98 is up there with the '97 Rockets as far as disappointment. That team's problem was the same it always had been prior to Beltran..... crap hitting in the postseason. The only real weakness of my beloved Bagwell.
Only 6 hit by pitches. using my maury application, this tranlates to 13 for the season. To put it in perspective, Biggio averaged 25 in the mid to late 90s. The good news is that craig was almost 30 when he mastered drawing the plunks. It also coincides with the timing of Alfred building him a suit. I expect altuve to work on that next.
Altuve still killing it. His slugging percentage is 30 points higher than Mike Trout's. Crazyness. .360/.426/.573 46 walks/46 k's after 106 games played. On pace for 66 walks if he plays 154 games. He leads the AL in batting average by 37 points. Unbelievable.
Is this guy going to get to 60 walks or what? Got one more today so he is at 49. On pace for 70. Come on Altuve!
Not sure if this was posted in a game thread but just amazing. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I guess you can try and pitch Jose Altuve low and away: <a href="https://t.co/NfFFn6nNfa">pic.twitter.com/NfFFn6nNfa</a></p>— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) <a href="https://twitter.com/dschoenfield/status/763938693669191682">August 12, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I haven't looked it up or anything, because I'm feeling lazy, but what is the biggest gap between the batting champ and the #2 guy?
Not exactly sure, but Gwynn had a season where he didn't have enough ABs or PAs to qualify, but he was so far ahead, they "gave" him all outs to make up the difference. He still won the title.
Final stats. .338/.396/.531 216 hits, 42 doubles, 5 triples, 24 home runs, 108 runs, 96 rbi, 7.7 WAR 60 walks! Nailed it. I'll be interesting to see if he can improve upon his walks next season. It seems obvious the improved pitch selection has led to the power spike.
