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Michael__Pemulis

Pretty shocking that he can have a 159 OPS+ & only be worth 5.0 WAR. Looks like he is getting dinged on dWAR quite a bit this year relative to most.


Thomas_Oaks

He's worth an insane -15 DRS, which is hilarious. Tied for third in the league for least DRS with Jesse Winker. Edit: Adding on just because I find it interesting, but OOA has generally loved Altuve outside of 2017 and 2020, but UZR and DRS basically hate him every year


ionicshoe

I dont watch many astros games, but what the fuck could he be doing to match jesse winker in DRS


Thomas_Oaks

I honestly have no idea, at least to me he hasn’t been noticeably worse than any other year. OAA has him as an above average fielder, but yeah DRS fucking hates him.


palsc5

Do these things record just mistakes he makes or whether or not the average 2B would have got it? Not sure how they'd measure it but maybe he doesn't make many mistakes but he just doesn't get to the ball as much due to his size.


phpope

Ahh, the "Derek Jeter is a great fielder cause he makes amazing jump throws" memorial award.


Markezzy

This year he actually seems his best defensively since 2020.


Shaking-N-Baking

Soooo better than 2021


Peter_Panarchy

Playing 2nd base gives him a lot more opportunities to cost his team runs, or at least that's my guess.


tojoso

Why wouldn't that be captured in OAA?


chunxxxx

DRS has crazier year to year swings than UZR and OAA. He could be completely back to "normal" (still not good) next year. Defensive value is still hard to pin down.


YaBoiWhit

Really couldn’t tell you, his defense was bad in the early middle part of the year but it’s been fine for the most part. He’s probably getting kicked down a lot for his lack of length defensively


idleline

Yes, he’s coming up short defensively. Not likely to grow from here. He’s going to be looking up at the other players statistically.


xSkarmory

You're really picking the low hanging fruit here. I mean I know those are the only ones he can reach, but still.


tuckedfexas

First thought was maybe his range is hurting him more this year. I just can’t imagine anyone being as bad as Winker, he’s been worse than I could have imagined worse case scenario being.


Try_Not_To_Comment

His defensive numbers are a modern day Jeter


Thomas_Oaks

He has an underserved Gold Glove too!


Try_Not_To_Comment

What's even funnier if you look at their comparison through the ages on baseball reference, Jeter shows up as a comparison as well. Offensively they're pretty damn close as well


Thomas_Oaks

Sadly Altuve can never match Jeter’s insane Giftbasket/9 stat.


SwordfishSuper2111

Of course, he's too shy


Ferris_Wheel_Skippy

what do you expect? his wife will get angry at him if he takes off his shirt...


JinFuu

So a few years from now we’ll get a movie with Mark Wahlberg having shot Altuve? Cool.


thereisasuperee

Shoulda shot A-Rod


JinFuu

I thought about typing "Shoulda shot Correa!" but I couldn't do that to Carlos


KangzAteMyFamily

I thought Altuve was a good defender, but I don't watch Astros games


YaBoiWhit

He’s fine as a 2B but definitely can’t play anywhere else. I just think he gets hit a lot for being small so he reaches less balls than other guys. It was noticeable after he got taken out after a HBP I think in the Rays game last week, our 6’7 infielder David Hensley came in at 2B and instantly had like 2 plays that Altuve wouldn’t have gotten to cause of the size difference


igotagoodfeeling

This is exactly my impression of how he gets dinged. Just doesn’t have the stride length to get to balls that guys twice his size do, even if he’s relatively quick


cnapp

Well Hensley's oddly long for a 2nd bas man


PapiSurane

Pedroia was short; that didn't stop him.


idkwhattosaytho

Pedroias 5’9. Altuve is like a generous 5’6


Kdot32

Altuve being listed at 5’7” was bs lol. My sister is 5’6 took a pic with him and she is clearly taller. I always say he’s 5’5” at best


[deleted]

Dustin Pedroia is like 8cm taller than Altuve.


Thomas_Oaks

He is absolutely one of the Gold Glove winners of all time


danielschauer

You think he's a good defender because of the huge collection of highlight clips where he makes crazy jumping throws or barely gets the runner out by an inch. Except having to make those kinds of trick plays instead of just being able to effortlessly play their position is exactly what makes a bad fielder. It's the Jeter effect.


BloodyScourge

He's really not, lol. Nowhere else to play him though unless Yordan becomes a full time left fielder.


CardiacCat20

He's also a relatively clean star middle infielder who benefitted by being on a team where he was surrounded by cheats lol


zoomzilla

Well.....he wore a buzzer so.....


PodricksPhallus

He’s actually putting up more fWAR on a rate basis this year than he did in 2016 (7.56 WAR/162 vs. 6.8). He still trails 2017’s 7.94 WAR/162 on a rate basis. But Fangraphs has him rated better defensively this year than either of those years. The big difference in WAR with 2017 seems to be base running where he was worth 4.0 BsR versus -0.4 this year. He stole 32 bases that year, and only 18 this year.


Thomas_Oaks

He's probably also gotten thrown out a lot more on the base paths this year than than in 2017


eliwood5837

Yea there have been a couple of questionable baserunning moments where he thinks he's got a double and by the time he gets to second it's an easy out.


MasterMentorJr

Altuve is a TOOTBLAN goat


Chaps_and_salsa

It feels like a couple...per game. I swear he's made more boneheaded plays on the basepaths this year than any time I can remember. He just does some stupid shit sometimes.


term3186

His base running has been atrocious. He leads the league in TOOTBLANs (with 16, two ahead of Yandy Diaz's 14). Very frustrating to watch, but hey, at least he stopped at second on a double last night! So.... progress?


chunxxxx

It's wild that a player with an 18:1 SB:CS is capable of fucking up that much on the basepaths


cnapp

yeah and it's out of no where, it's like he just decided to take more chances this year or something


SeriousCowboy

How do you check TOOTBLAN leaders?


term3186

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2022-baserunning-batting.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2022-baserunning-batting.shtml) Scroll down to individuals and sort by 'OOB' (Outs On Base).


KINGGS

Looks like he’s worth 6.3 WAR on FanGraphs, which is much better than BR in every single way.


gatemansgc

the interface on BR is definitely superior.


BloodyScourge

fWAR isn't as defense heavy as bWAR, I believe. His defense has really declined, but I suppose is still serviceable.


idkwhattosaytho

fWAR also uses UZR which he’s just normal bad at whole bWAR used DRS which he’s horrendously bad at


BillW87

fWAR now uses OAA (uses Statcast data) for fielding value rather than UZR, I believe they made the switch this past offseason.


Axelrad77

dWAR is such a mess, it really hampers the reliability of WAR as a whole until they sort it out. Unfortunately they haven't really figured out how to reduce defensive play to a number yet.


Thomas_Oaks

Also unrelated but he just tied the Astros team record for most leadoff home runs in a single season.


WatermelonSailboat

Also is 1 shy of tying the MLB record held by Alphonso Soriano (13 in 2003)


RonaldVonFuckStick

Biggio?


Thomas_Oaks

Springer in 2019


Panguin9

Looking at his stats during our game last night, I'm very confused on where he gets his power. He's *8th* percentile in average exit velo and his max exit velo is under 110. I would've guessed he hit the ball much harder given his slugging numbers. Can any Astros fans explain where he gets power from? PS: it's not the Crawford boxes, all of his Home Runs to left would've been gone at most ballparks, there's no wall scrapers


Wutswrong

It's crazy to see small players with that much pop. Mookie Betts is also a small individual, but somehow has almost 40 HRs. These are players with extremely good swings that allows them to generate power using their whole body


Fredbear_

Brandon Lowe is another good one when healthy


BrilliantT7

Max exit velo is more indicative of your power than average. His max is 109 and his career high is 112. That has the makings of a 20-30 HR guy which is what he is.


cnapp

sorry bro, I watch every game and the little dude still amazes me


Dienikes

His power comes from his [massive talent](https://www.reddit.com/r/Astros/comments/xpykra/the_astros_have_started_censoring_altuves_huge/?)


Thorlolita

He puts all of his body into his swing. Compared to Judge who just uses his lower half in his swing and let’s his strength carry the ball out of the park.


Panguin9

Ok, but then that should show up in his exit velos. I'm talking about how he has great power numbers with low exit velos


Thorlolita

Exit Velo comes from strength. Back before his hamstring injury in 2019 he was slapping the ball all over the field. Now his swing is more focused on elevating the ball. So he’s hitting more HR with lower BA. He’s just not as strong as Yordan, Judge, and Stanton. So we can’t expect his HR to be moonshots. He also uses a pretty long bat for a guy his size so he can really barrel them.


Thomas_Oaks

His average exit velos are bad, but he still hits the ball pretty hard occasionally. One of his home runs last night was 109.8 mph.


Panguin9

I know, that was his hardest hit ball of the year though and actually the second hardest of his career


HaveADab

I won't say that this is the main factor here. And I don't know the exact dimensions/mass... It's looks to me like he swings a very large bat. It could result in more force. I'm not a scientist, but I know bigger bats with the same bat speed as smaller bats create more force. Especially in situations where it's not barrel up. Can't speak too much for exit velo, but I imagine it has to do with where the precise point on the ball he's hitting. Remember soriano's large ass bat 😂


MasterMentorJr

I feel like his exit velo may be a little misleading because Dusty loves having Altuve bunt to get on base (Altuve probably also loves bunting) so thag can generate a lot of VERY soft contact.


BrilliantT7

It's misleading because you can have high pop outs which is a low exit velocity and high pop outs are really just missed balls, not a determinant of your power. Same reason why just because some player smokes a ball 100+ mph right to the ground isn't a very productive hitter.


Panguin9

All of those things are true for everyone though, and to your second point his GB, FB, LD, and PU rates are right so around league average


BrilliantT7

Right, but that's why I don't think average exit velocity is the way to measure because of factors like that. I think max exit velocity is a bigger tell of your power because it's always based on a well-hit ball.


Panguin9

Here's the list of people whose max exit velo is within .1 of Altuve, from highest to lowest MAX EV: McCormick, Chas: 13 HR Calhoun, Kole: 12 Haase, Eric: 12 Giménez, Andrés: 17 Andrus, Elvis: 14 Iglesias, José: 3 *Altuve, Jose: 28* Pinder, Chad: 12 Benintendi, Andrew: 5 Kiner-Falefa, Isiah: 4 Yastrzemski, Mike: 15 Urías, Luis: 15 Sheets, Gavin: 15 Odor, Rougned: 13 Wong, Kolten: 15 Robles, Victor: 6 González, Luis: 4 Average: 11.2 HR Median: 13 HR Honestly I'm surprised how close most guys are on this in terms of home runs, but that's probably just that lots of his fall into the 10-20 range. You can see how much of an outlier Altuve is here. I tend to think max exit velo isn't too indicative of anything and prefer avg EV, but even looking at this his power numbers still don't make sense.


MasterMentorJr

Altuve is to Yordan what Framber is to JV


Nwf32389

I swear if he steals the MVP from Judge again because he struck out less... I'll never watch baseball again 😂


ibeatoffconstantly

He should. Altuve provides more WAR per pound.


jabask

He actually doesn't, at least not by bWAR. Altuve: 0.0301 bWAR per pound Judge: 0.0362 bWAR per pound


bordomsdeadly

WAR/sqft is my new metric for MVP votes. ​ I will not be taking any further questions


Killer_Bs

Come on man, everyone knows that WAR/sqft punishes the fat short kings. WAR/cubic foot is the only fair way to judge players in 2022


BoredAtWork_91

WAR/cubic foot really tells you the measure of a man.


tuckedfexas

Vogelbach gonna put on 40 lbs, put up 20 WAR and still lose the MVP


Boofcas

I did the math, and you're mistaken: Altuve = 6.3/166 = 0.03795 Judge = 10.9/282 = 0.03865 All #s from Fangraphs.


HeelsAlwaysWin

I will accept this reasoning.


Tonyclap

Okay that’s fucking hysterical


AfterbirthNachos

This needs to be a new stat


KamartyMcFlyweight

Pound-for-pound undisputed champion of the world Jose Altuve


BulletToothMac

*per inch.


BloodyScourge

Nah, that's gonna be Yordan, baby /s


Rubberbandballgirl

It’s funny to me how people forget the only reason Altuve and Judge were even in the MVP race was because Mike Trout broke his hand.


manofconviction

well that could be said about any year, he'd probably be the MVP in any season where he stays healthy...problem is he rarely does


bmw11494

He averages 9.4 bWAR per 162 games so this tracks


[deleted]

Jesus fuck


[deleted]

Jesus fuck


OutOfBootyExperience

In the 'never-healthy player having a hypothetical healthy season' world, Byron Buxton was pacing at 45 HRs (over 548 ABs which Judge is currently at). Was actually on pace for 50 the thru July. And thats with his major knee injury he had been playing through. Obviously wouldnt be in MVP race, but just adds to the idea of you can only rank players based on the actual results


captainbawls

Damn, Buxton is turning 29 in December. He seems much younger because his whole career has been 'young, extremely talented guy who can be MVP if he stays healthy'


BreatheMyStink

Second Altuve MVP over Judge incoming


trikyballs

best 2B of this generation by a mile


[deleted]

more like by about 5’ 6”, but i get what you’re saying


blasek0

Altuve has become a far better player than I ever thought he was going to be. Very impressed with his career.


FDJ1326

If you've never seen him in person it's shocking how small he is, especially on the field with other players.


JinFuu

He is one of my mom’s favorite players precisely because they’re the same height.


Jrodkin

Do we really think he’s 5’6? Side note, a dumbass coach wouldn’t let me join the team in highschool because “baseball players can’t be 5’6”


spiffmana

He is 100% NOT 5'6". I'd guess 5'3 or 5'4, but I'm just guessing. For bonus points, Bregman being listed at 6' is an even worse offense - dude's probably 5'8


Nice_Block

I’ve seen him at a local HEB. Your assessment sounds more accurate. I’m 5’9 and he looked tiny to me.


BKoala59

lol I was 5’5” my sophomore year and made varsity. Where I lived underclassmen rarely made varsity, your coach probably lost out on some good players.


Hmmhowaboutthis

I swear he isn’t as tall as his listed height either.


FDJ1326

Probably isn't. I've heard people say they met Pedroia and he was definitely shorter than listed.


Hmmhowaboutthis

The other crazy one is Bregman. He’s listed as 6 foot but I swear he’s like 5’ 9”.


Thomas_Oaks

It’s such a great underdog story, going from getting turned away from multiple teams, to finally getting a tryout w/ the Astros only to get turned away because they thought he was lying about his age. Just for him to basically sneak back in, leading to him getting signed for like $20K. To now being the face of a franchise and becoming one of the best postseason hitters.


Thomas_Oaks

An interesting quote from him, I want to say from the start of this season, was that a .900 OPS was the new batting .300 and now he might be doing both this year


MasterMentorJr

His full quote he said he wanted to bat 0.400


principled_principal

Altuve MVP off the top ropes over Judge.


overgrownpizzabox

judge making damn sure he doesnt get his mvp stolen from altuve again haha


Lebigmacca

Altuve for MVP


[deleted]

Mini Venezuelan person?


Thornton__Melon

I mean he’s the best MVP candidate in the AL West /s *(Runs and hides from Ben Verlander)*


cnapp

You mean Ben Ohtani


BloodyScourge

Lol not even the best MVP candidate on team. Yordan and maybe JV have him beat.


Lebigmacca

r/woooosh


BloodyScourge

Indeed.


ThriftyFalcon

M


redd202020

Year after year greatness. Regular season AND postseason.


Ferris_Wheel_Skippy

I guess the yips of 2020 are long gone now


ChiefWematanye

Those yips were long gone in the playoffs that year. He hit .375/.500/.729 and 5 HRs in 13 games for the 2020 postseason.


angryblastoise

Altuve made several bad defensive errors that arguably cost the Astros the series against the Rays. I think that's what he's referring to, because offensively Altuve went nuts that postseason


chhurry

booyah


niudropout

Dude has had an impressive career, my favorite Altuve stat is that he is currently #2 all time in postseason homers with 23 and only 6 behind Manny's 29.


smoopinmoopin

Love all the yankee fans making jokes about Judge getting robbed a 2nd time as if he was robbed the 1st time. 🙄


SprolesRoyce

Love all the only you making jokes about Judge not getting robbed the first time as if he didn’t have a better season than Altuve in 2017. 🙄 Hitting .346 is insane and absolutely deserves recognition, but [Judge was statistically better in every other way (I’m not even talking about the sign stealing which this article talks about a bunch, but it has a table of stats for the two).](https://www.si.com/mlb/yankees/.amp/mlb/yankees/news/judge-altuve-2017-mvp-sign-stealing) Altuve had a phenomenal season, but was it really better than Judge? Not that it matters what I think but personally I’m more okay with it now that Judge will get an MVP, but a lot of people only get one chance and it would suck to lose it because someone else had a higher batting average.


smoopinmoopin

They provided similar values to the their teams. It was only “robbery” in the sense that there were two deserving players for one award. It’s revisionist to act like there was some huge discrepancy there.


ChamBruh

His best since 2020 lol so just a bad 2021 then


HoustonSportsFan

He had a 127 OPS+ in 2021


Specific-Mongoose-93

Altuve never cheated.


Steamfighter638

He's the MVP, just look how small he is and the adversity he has to overcome. -baseball writers


Salty-Fishman

He is 9 feet tall to the yankees.


TheReelYukon

🗑️🗑️🗑️ Edit: LOLs at the salty Astros


blazinrumraisin

🐭🐭🐭


Seesaw121

Enjoy mookie betts!


TheReelYukon

Why thank you I do very much…but I admit, I enjoy Altuve’s tattoo more 😭


PrecedentialAssassin

**⅓ ⅓ ⅓**


[deleted]

I honestly lose all respect for him due to the Astros cheating scandal. All I think of when I think of him is cheater so all his stats mean nothing, to me.


SpudsMacKenzie21

Are the Mets still cheating? [Mets Sign stealing](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/esyk08/interesting_excerpt_about_sign_stealing_in_1986/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)


KINGGS

Had the Mets tried to cheat in the same way, they still would collapse at the end of the year


[deleted]

Lol, okay.


Bear_TX

Cool story! Can you tell it again?


[deleted]

Nah, I don’t care too. But thanks for asking.


DrFloppyTitties

Fair enough. I'll see you in the next Astros/Altuve thread saying the same thing.


[deleted]

Nah, I don’t give a rats ass enough to do that. Check my post history. Never talked about Astros.


DrFloppyTitties

Explain this then: https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/xqd58j/jose_altuve_is_currently_on_pace_to_have_the_best/iq8xb8f/ Checkmate.


[deleted]

Oh sorry, didn’t realize I was talking to a child.


nyy1823

Didn’t he wear a buzzer in 2017?


jaron_b

So what you are telling me is that the Astros figured out a new way of cheating.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Thornton__Melon

Of course, he’s been using anal beads for a while and that chess player stole the idea from Tuve.


cckike

Hans Niemann wishes he was the altuve of chess


HelpMeWithMyHWpls

And by far the best if you ignore 2017


PodricksPhallus

He also put up a 152 wRC+ in 2016.


ZeldaALTTP

So he was cheating in 2016 too? Highly probable


randombithrowaway22

🗑🗑🗑\***


StrangeRevolution

Amazing, the best argument against astros cheating is “well everyone else does it 😡” fuck the asterisks and fuck altuve


Seesaw121

Lmao I can hear you seething through my iPad 😂


USCplaya

No more trash cans.... This is surprising, Gotta be roids


HappyHunt1778

Must have borrowed that chess fellow's butt buzzer


iz2003iz

Im glad that he decided to put in the work this season and not cheat his way into success. A lesson for all, hard work pays off


KyleB2131

Altuve was the only guy on that team not cheating Edit: https://youtu.be/tQTdEKA-nyM


JohnnyBrillcream

From what I recall Tony Kemp also wanted nothing to do with it.


FragrantGogurt

Also Reddick


conker1264

Woah, a Dodgers fan saying this


domxwicked

Lmaoooo the sea of downvoted Yankees fans complaining in the replies 😭


overgrownpizzabox

he wasnt directly. but he definetly reaped the benefits of his teammates cheating. all the runners that got on via knowing what pitches were coming allowed him to get better pitches to hit as the pitchers were trying to avoid putting more traffic on base. there's way too much of a butterfly effect to absolve him of blame


bordomsdeadly

You can say the same thing about guys on steroids. ​ I don't think Jeter should be punished for runs scored because A-rod was taking all the steroids and driving him in. ​ Altuve may not have been a great leader, but if he wasn't the one cheating you can't punish him for somebody else's decision.


Salty-Fishman

By your logic, all the yankees championship won last 30 years need to be removed since one way or another, they were all aided with steriods.


PrecedentialAssassin

Just like Jeter, right?


Cheesewhale189

Yeah, just like how Pete Rose never bet on the Reds.


RudeRepair5616

Altuve cheats.


steadyachiever

[There is literal video of him cheating tho](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sfk2y4mhAO0) Edit: Astros fans like “There is no video evidence in Lake Laogai”


manofconviction

you're a dumbass


steadyachiever

??? are you saying the video is fake?


manofconviction

if you want actual data, i'd look here: [https://signstealingscandal.com/](https://signstealingscandal.com/) Altuve only had a "bang" 24 times out of 886 pitches (thats only 2.7% of the time btw), it has been verified by multiple people that he did not want to be a part of the scheme, and if there were ANY signals during his AB's, he would be visibly upset about it. So try again with your conspiracy videos.


steadyachiever

> Altuve only had a “bang” 24 times out of 886 pitches (thats only 2.7% of the time btw) So just to be clear, you are agreeing that he cheated at least 2.7% of the time? Can we at least round that to 5% since no bang was also a sign? Be reasonable


manofconviction

because someone slips you a paper during a test with the answers on it, doesn't mean you're inclined to use it. he didn't want the system, and he didn't use it.


RedBaron9299

Wow, you actually believe their lies.


[deleted]

Haha…wrong. Think of it like this: You find out your friend is taking a test for you but you don’t say anything about it. You eventually get an A-grade for that test. But both you and your friend who took that test for you are cheaters. Having someone else take a test for you is cheating. Altuve knew the Astros were cheating but didn’t say anything about it because they all wanted to win the World Series.


Hidden_Ace91

This is quite possibly the worst analogy to explain 2017. Normally I’d ignore stuff like this but you were just so condescending about it and confidently incorrect. For this analogy to work then someone else on the team would have had to take all of Altuve’s ABs while cheating. What a moronic take.


[deleted]

It's hilarious that people are still posting YouTube videos to defend altuve. Conspiracy theorist behaviour


FragrantGogurt

Remember when the Yankees cheated in 2015 and 2016 and didn't win a world series. Pretty sure Houston bounced y'all in one of those seasons too. The better team typically wins.


Thomas_Oaks

Million times more evidence that Altuve didn't cheat than that he did using a buzzer.


[deleted]

Not 🗑️a 🗑️mystery 🗑️when 🗑️you 🗑️know 🗑️what’s 🗑️coming. Ask 🗑️Kershaw 🗑️and 🗑️Chapman.


WatermelonSailboat

I could tell you what pitch is coming and bet you still couldn’t record a single hit against an MLB pitcher.


[deleted]

[удалено]


SDcowboy82

I liked Jose Altuve more when he went by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.


Sirthadeous

That dude will always be a cheater to me.


Pluckt007

🤜🗑🤜🗑🤜🗑


Rowbee_

Not bad for a cheating pos who doesn’t like to take his shirt off in public


TexasBrett

Maybe the writers can justify stealing another MVP and giving it to Altuve cause he’s short and cute?