http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...arly.lightning.round/index.html?sct=mlb_wr_a1 Jose Altuve is starting to get some national attention!
Shouldn't he be mentioned under ROY discussion too? Or did he play enough last year to not be eligibile?
The recognition is very cool I suppose along with it, will be additional scouting. I guess time will tell if scouts find a weakness in his offense to exploit.
Wow, MVP? I wonder how many baseball fans even know who he is? But there seems to be a few players: altuve and martinez who are the best kept secret in baseball. Both have major talent.
I like it! i swear if the announcers call him Joe again, I will throw a hostess snowball at the sound system.
Over his career. He has an above average skill set, and knows how to put the bat on the ball. However, he is never going to be the centerpeice of a lineup or a defense.
Good point - though Pedroia was one of the most ridiculous MVPs of all time. He had an .870 OPS and 17 HRs. Tons of players had better seasons than him and he should have never even been in the MVP race let alone winning it. Ignoring all the random players that had far superior seasons, there were even similarly good 2Bs (Kinsler) and much better players on his own team (Youkilis). http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/year/2008/league/al/sort/OPS/order/true
link Jose Altuve Shortens His Strike Zone At a listed five-foot-five, Houston's Jose Altuve faces an uphill climb to big league success. He's the most vertically-challenged hitter in the majors since Al Montreuil had a cup of coffee with the Cubs four decades ago. And the list of short guys with good bats and meaningful careers is, well, short. According to Baseball-Reference, Topsy Hartsel, Willie Keeler, Bill Keister, Charlie Duffee and Albie Pearson are the only batters standing 5-foot-5 or under with at least a league-average OPS while getting at least 2,000 career plate appearances. The first four of those fellows began their careers before the Spanish-American War and the Wright Brothers' famous flight. While Altuve has a tall task in front of him, he raked in the minors (.327/.326/.481) and has shown improvement with Houston in 2012 after a shaky rookie stint last year. Altuve had an 81 OPS+ in 2011. But in 2012, he has a 174 OPS+. A major reason for the uptick is improved plate patience: Altuve has already drawn seven walks in 77 plate appearances after taking just five free passes in 234 plate appearances in 2011. Altuve has one of the smallest natural strike zones this side of Eddie Gaedel, but he made it much bigger than it had to be last year by swinging at anything from his eyes to his ankles: Altuve's swing rate by pitch location, 2011 The Astros' second baseman swung at 42% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone, one of the ten highest rates in the majors and much higher than the 28% MLB average. This year, however, Altuve is showing a far more selective approach at the plate: Altuve's swing rate by pitch location, 2012 His chase rate is down to 23% in 2012. That, combined with a decrease in his number of cuts on in-zone pitches, means that Altuve has boosted his average number of pitches seen per plate appearance from 3.06 last year to 3.92 (the MLB average is about 3.8). History shows it's hard for little guys to last in the majors. But Altuve could have a long, productive career if he can complement his contact skills with a good eye.
His minor league #s would suggest his PA/BB ratio from his debut last year (46.8 AB per BB) may be an anomaly or that he had problems adjusting to MLB pitching. His minor league PA/BB ratio was about 14.0 AB per BB. His ratio this year is about 9.6. I think if he can stay between that 14 and 10 ratio, he will be successful.
He cannot help that he is so short, but he can maximize the few strengths that come with it. If he can become more patient, his strike zone is tiny, there is no reason he cannot draw walks galore and work the count like Bret Butler and Rickey Henderson did, neither were giants.
And thus, a perfect example of why you can't dismiss any reasonable player from being in the MVP discussion over the course of their career, especially a proven minor league hitter who is only 21.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=graphsw&num=3&h=450&w=450&players=5417,4579" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphsw.aspx?players=5417,4579&wg=3">FanGraphs</a> -- <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4579&position=SS">Starlin Castro</a>, <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5417&position=SS">Jose Altuve</a></span>
