Oh I know, was just talking ****, as I am wont to do. If there was a "most improved player" award in MLB, it goes to Altuve, his baserunning and defense made serious strides this year.
Help me out here because my knowledge of astro front office moves is so limited that it's embarrassing but what does the future hold for altuve with the Astros? Is he going to stay or will it be a case of he will leave for a bigger team?
i think altuve likes being the face of the franchise, and when they start winning he will like it that much more playing alongside kid correa (top 3 prospect in baseball) should be fun as well.
This article really shows how incredible a feat is Altuve has been so successful given his strike zone. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-year-in-high-strikes-to-jose-altuve/ The gifs really shows just how ridiculous it is the way umpires call strikes against him. The most egregious one Spoiler
That's a great article. I never really thought about things in that way. I remember when Altuve came into the league I thought it should make OBP easier for him because his strike zone is so small he just needs to take a bunch of pitches and he'll get walks just because pitchers will have trouble finding his particular strike zone. But the reality is that umps are too used to doing things their way and aren't going to change "their" zone dramatically in most cases. Which means that suddenly Jose is at a disadvantage. His height now works against him because he will be expected to get hits on pitches that are, relative to him, WAY out of the normal wheelhouse. Thinking about things that way, a guy of Altuve's stature is only ever going to really be successful if he evolves himself into being a "bad ball" hitter, exactly as he has. It was probably never reasonable to expect a guy like him to be a high OBP batter from taking walks because he has to be aggressive every time he is at the plate.
Great article. Maybe umpires will call pitches more correctly once Altuve gets more established as a star. Regardless, keep doing the city proud, Jose!!
