<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Altuve's back. Domingo Santana batting 7th. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> <a href="http://t.co/TSnaIsFfUH">pic.twitter.com/TSnaIsFfUH</a></p>— Howard Chen (@TheHoChen) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheHoChen/status/610814266954756098">June 16, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Wouldn't mind seeing Correa switched with Altuve there. Then again, any combination of Spronger-Correa-Altuve at the top is going to be deadly.
The you look deeper into Altuve's numbers, they would strongly suggest that last season was the outlier, not his current slump. Other than last season, he has been a solid but not great player. Not saying he can't get back to last years level, but if I were viewing him from a neutral perspective I would say .290 is much closer to the real Altuve than .330. Certainly hope I'm wrong though.
The main problem with Altuve is that a .290 average isn't good enough when his OBP is only .330. He hasn't walked in June (OBP is actually lower than his average for the month). It's a long season and I'm sure he'll start hitting again. He's clearly been pressing (swinging at the first pitch regardless of location). If he does, that 1-2-3 is going to be great no matter what order they're in (I prefer Springer-Altuve-Correa right now).
This is exactly why you put Altuve in the 3 hole instead of 1 or 2. He has not shown the ability to go deep in counts or draw walks so put Springer and Correa in front of him and let them set the table for Altuve. Altuve has been the staple in a bad Astros lineup for 3 years. I am excited to see what he can do with legit talent before him and power hitters behind him.
I think his age has to be factored in when we look at who he has been and who we think he will be Let's not forget his last year in the minors was his first shot at AA or higher and he hit .360 at AA and then .406 at AAA, as a 20 year old His first full season in the majors (2012) he started off great hitting .360 for the first month, and staying well above .300 into July, but seemed to wear down and struggle down as the season went on. He was 21 years old at the time Then in 2013 he started great again, but was almost killed by Jimmy Paredes and took him a while to get it back together again. Last year was the only year he actually started out poorly, hitting under .280 the first month. Then for 5 months his WORST was July when he hit .324, and this was a year he started at 23 years old I'm not saying he is going to be a year after year batting champion and go to the hall of fame or anything....but I'll be really surprised if he isn't a .315-.320 guy for many years. Also, many people still talk about him as a punch singles hitter who steals a lot of bases. Let's not forget he was 3rd in all of MLB last year in doubles with 47, and 25th in all of MLB in OPS. In a year he played at 23/24 years old. And stole 56 bases. Many people went into last year saying Altuve wasn't going to be the long term answer at 2b and expecting him to not be that guy. If that was already their mindset on him, it doesn't take much more than a few weeks of bad baseball to sour on him a little again. Having said all of that, May was the worst month he has had in the big leagues and June hasn't started out much better. Hopefully the few days off will help him and he will come out today and get back on track.
I've always thought the "yellow line" was stupid If the ball stays in the park, play it If the ball leaves the park, home run
if it hits below the yellow line on the crawford rails, then ricochets and hits above the yellow line that was just in question, is that a HR?
So if it bounces off an empty seat (which there will be a lot of today), and back to the field, is it in play?
