By the second inning of yesterday's 13-3 thrashing of the Los Angeles Angels, Jose Altuve had already homered twice.
He drove in six runs on the day, raising his batting average to .360 (tops in the majors). It seems like most of the national attention Altuve receives focuses on his height, as he is only 5'6. Its like people think of him as a good player, but only for being so short. But he is so much more than that-- to this point is the season, Jose Altuve is the AL MVP, and its not really debatable. In addition to his league leading batting average, Altuve leads the AL in stolen bases, hits and on base percentage. He is in the top 5 in runs scored, doubles, SLG and OPS. The dude also plays a slick second base (he was last years Gold Glove winner), combining with Carlos Correa to turn some of the cleanest double plays in the MLB:
Just effortless. And its not like he's doing all this for an irrelevant team-- the Astros have battled back after a slow start to move within 2.5 games of the Rangers in the AL West. I'm from Houston so I might be biased, but the numbers don't lie. If this dude was on the Yankees, he would be on ESPN more than Lebron. Altuve is the best player in the AL right now, and deserves much more time in the national spotlight.
-Beats