FWIW, from people who’ve claimed to have met him, Altuve is much shorter than his claimed 5’6".
In other news, and what looks a little strange to my baseball neophyte wagering eye, Game 1 of the Series has Cole and the rest of the Astros as a -200 favorite over the Nats. It opened at -220. http://www.vegasinsider.com/mlb/odds/las-vegas/
What’s weird is that a futures bet for the WS as a whole has very similar odds: Astros -220, Nats +180. http://www.vegasinsider.com/mlb/odds/futures/ I would’ve expected a greater difference in Game 1, given how much better Cole is than the other, still very good, Astros pitchers.
Anyway, Astros in 6. I think Cole will blow 1 of these games.
In 2017, Altuve hit seven home runs in the postseason. Only 3 players have hit more home runs in one postseason, and they all hit eight: Barry Bonds in 2002, Carlos Beltran in 2004, and Nelson Cruz in 2011. Beltran’s 8 homers came in only 56 plate appearances.
Short people always seem shorter than they really are. He is probably five-six, but especially next to other pro athletes he looks tiny.
How tall is Peter Dinklage, the guy who plays dwarf Tyrion Lannister on Game of thrones? Most people would guess “I dunno, three feet tall?” You’d think he is half the height of a normal man. Actually he’s 4’4", about three quarters the height of a normal man. Similarly, a man who is quite tall - say seven feet tall - will seem to be much taller than a foot more than a six foot tall man. It’s odd.
So in addition to everything else, it will be nice to see Anthony Rendon, who is already the second-best player to ever come out of Rice University and who has a chance to pass Lance Berkman as the best, play some World Series games in Houston. (Third best is either Jose Cruz Jr. or Norm Charlton, depending on how much extra credit you give Charlton for that one World Series.)
Rice Owl here. I’d say he’s already arguably the best to come out of Rice, despite the shorter (so far) career. Another couple good seasons, and there should be no doubt.
Loved watching him play at Reckling, and I’m taking great pleasure that his World Series debut will be in his hometown where his friends and family and former teammates can watch him
Also, I suppose you can technically count Runnels, but he was only at Rice for the fall semester in '48 (GI bill) and never played baseball for Rice before going out for the majors in the spring of '49. The others all at least played on the school team. He was also coincidentally on the Colt '45s before they became the Astros but only at the tail end of his career and was cut by the team not long after.
Purely on the numbers, he isn’t quite there yet - it’s easy to underestimate how good Berkman was. Rendon this year had a 6.3 WAR, but Berkman had two years of 6.5 and 6.9 - it would take another couple years at his current level and better-than-average longevity for Rendon to win out. (edit: actually looking at the numbers again, Rendon had a 6.6 WAR in 2014, helped by a lot of defensive value - but he’s still a bit short on that measure.)
Altuve can’t be “much shorter” than his listed 5’6".
For what it’s worth, when he first came up back in '11, he was listed at 5’7" (170cm) but a few times admitted his currently listed 5’6" (168cm). The figure was originally fudged by the scouts so the Astros front office wouldn’t get scared off a talented player. There’s not much reason to doubt the corrected figure that removes the almost de rigeur athlete measurement inflation.
Holy shit, this is actually happening! After 86 years, including 33 seasons when DC was without a MLB team of their own, the Nats are about to play a freakin’ WORLD SERIES game!!
