Jose Altuve sets a single-season club record for hits by a second baseman (which is also the club record for hits by anyone). He looks pretty likely to win the batting title, a club first. He’s also leading the league in stolen bases by a comfortable margin.
His age 24 season is better than anything Bagwell or Biggio did by that age (of course, both of those guys got substantially better as they got into their mid-20s). I was a bit down on him before the season started - he seemed to start out hot each season and fade by the middle of the year, his second full season was somewhat worse than his first, and I had (and still have) some doubts about whether his high-contact, low-walk game can be sustained. But he’s definitely living up to the hype for now.
His stats are interesting. He barely ever walks, and he barely ever strikes out. His strikeout percentage is the second-lowest in the majors.
He benefited this year from a BABIP of .361, the fifth-best in baseball. I don’t think there’s any way he maintains that over the long run, and combined with the lack of power that means he’s probably unlikely to keep producing the sort of season he did this year. He’s definitely had a great season, though.
I think Altuve can keep it up to some extent. His BABIP is very high by the standards we are used to seeing but Altuve is a very unusual player by modern standards, a true slash-and-run hitter in the mold of many players of the past, like Joe Sewell. Altuve’s approach and skill set are not something we’ve seen in literally decades, and so assuming his stats will conform to other players might not be a safe assumption. It is noteworthy that Altuve, while he doesn’t walk much, has walked as much as he did last year while cutting his K rate significantly, so contact is something he’s clearly making more of an effort to do.
If offensive levels remain low we may see more Jose Altuves. The approach of working the count and swinging for the fences is not working as well as it used to because a new generation of pitchers is hitting the strike zone a lot more. Slashing and running may be a solution for some players.
Good point. It’s interesting that the drop in the number of strikeouts is exactly the same as the increase in the number of hits, from last year to this year.
I’d still be reasonably surprised if he could maintain a BABIP of .360 in the long run. While making contact is clearly a skill that batter have or can develop, it’s surely much harder to develop the skill (to use the old cliche) of “hit 'em where they ain’t.” Placement of the ball is hard to do. I’d be interested to see if there are other players who make contact as often as Altuve, but have very different BABIP numbers. I’m at work now, but maybe i’ll have a look later on.
.360 is about what the really good singles hitters have for the heart of their careers (Ichiro and Tony Gwynn were the two I looked at). Both of them have career BABIPs in the mid .340s (counting decline years); anyway I’m not saying Altuve is Tony Gwynn or Ichiro, but it’s not unheard of to keep the levels that high.
My poor Reds, mathematically eliminated today…against the Cubs. This Reds team couldn’t buy a hit after the break. So many wasted pitching efforts, such lousy offense.
Charlie and Dave over Carp for sure, but FP has his moments. The best part of the celebration was Harper walking around the clubhouse in a DCFD helmet with his number on it. He had asked for one from the department because he’s a fan of first responders. It was cool and did a lot to redeem him for his comments in the press earlier in the year.
Alex Anthopolous was, to say the least, not super supportive of his manager, John Gibbons, in these comments:
The horseshit nature of such comments in particularly galling when one considers the Jays’ misfortunes really have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with John Gibbons, who has managed the team perfectly well. He’s used in players more or less as well as any manager could be expected to. I honestly cannot think of any significant problem with the way Gibbons manages a ballclub. He makes a mistake here and there, but no more than any other manager and far fewer than most, and if anything he’s more willing than most to try unorthodox things that work. Frankly I think he deserves some credit for getting at least 77 wins out of this squad.
The team is mediocre because they have assembled a roster of limited talent. That ain’t Gibbons’s fault. It’s the fault of Alex Anthopolous.
While your link is broken, I’ve been reading elsewhere about a lot of those changes. Sacramento has apparently been courting the Giants because the city has more Giants fans than A’s fans. The A’s, knowing that Sacramento was fixing to ditch them, decided that of the AAA teams that were coming free this winter, Nashville would be the best to hook up with due to its new stadium. The others essentially played a game of musical chairs that resulted from the above.
