Jose Altuve is the reigning American League MVP, he leads the majors with a .343 batting average, the Astros are having a terrific season ... and yet we've hardly talked about him and that seems a little weird. After all, the man is a baseball treasure and we should always remind ourselves of that.
Altuve went 3-for-4 with two home runs off Nathan Eovaldi in the Astros' 5-1 win over the Rays on Wednesday. Here's the first one and it reminded me of an old-school, Joe DiMaggio swing or somebody like that, in part because Altuve stands way off the plate like batters used to back in the day, rather than crowd the plate like so many of today's sluggers:
If you pause the video right at the end of Altuve's swing, notice how far off the plate he is.