In the coming days, Astros second baseman Jose Altuve will reach another major career milestone when he collects his 2,000th hit. When Altuve legged out an infield single in the ninth inning of Friday's loss to the Mariners, he was sitting on 1,998 career hits and flirting with history. That's a remarkable achievement for any player -- Altuve would be the 293rd player in Major League history and the seventh active player to reach 2,000 -- but Altuve's backstory only adds to the impressiveness of the feat. When he reaches 2,000 career hits, Altuve will join Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell (2,314 hits) and Craig Biggio (3,060 hits) as the only players in franchise history to reach those marks. And Altuve will have done it in fewer games, fewer plate appearances and at a younger age than the charter members of the Killer B's: Biggio reached 2,000 hits on May 4, 2001, in his 8,025th career plate appearance and 1,827th game. He was 35 years, four months and 18 days old. Bagwell reached 2,000 hits on April 26, 2003, in his 8,033rd career plate appearance and 1,818th game. He was 34 years, 10 months and 29 days old. Altuve's 1,998th hit came in his 7,183rd career plate appearance and 1,630th game. He was 33 years, three months and 12 days old on Friday. Biggio's 168th career hit came on May 6, 1990 -- the day Altuve was born. Altuve's father was watching a baseball game at a field next door to the hospital where his wife was giving birth in Venezuela. Carlos Altuve spent much of his free time the next few years throwing baseballs to his oldest son with hopes he would inherit his father's love of the game. "He always told me," Jose said, "'You've got to hit to make the Major Leagues.'" Altuve first caught Houston's attention while playing second base for the Venezuelan 16-and-under national team. The Astros sent scout Omar López -- their current first-base coach -- to see another player, a shortstop named Angel Nieves, in Venezuela. |
Lopez drove four hours to watch Nieves, but he couldn't take his eyes off "the little guy." Al Pedrique, then a special assistant under general manager Tim Purpura, went to see Altuve, and his ability to put the bat on the ball couldn't be ignored. Pedrique met with Altuve's family and offered him $15,000 to sign. His father was an assistant engineer at a chemical company (his mother was a housewife), so money wasn't an issue. Still, $15,000 was too much to pass up. "I was putting that money in my pocket before I answered that," Altuve said. "I always believed the hardest thing for me was an organization giving me the opportunity." Altuve's rise was a quick one. He spent only one year playing for the Astros Venezuelan Summer League team in 2007 before they made a decision to bring him to the U.S., which was unprecedented for a player so young. A career .327 hitter in the Minor Leagues, he was hitting a combined .389 between Class A Lancaster and Double-A Corpus Christi in 2011 when the Astros called him up midseason after trading Jeff Keppinger. Altuve made his Major League debut on July 20, 2011, against the Nationals and had a hit in the first seven games of his career. And he hasn't stopped hitting. He was an All-Star in 2012, won his first batting title in 2014 and was named the AL Most Valuable Player in 2017. He's one of the most clutch players of his generation and will soon join Bagwell and Biggio in the 2,000-hit club -- and likely one day the Hall of Fame. |
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Outfielder Jacob Melton, the Astros' No. 1-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline, has been out of action since Aug. 8 with what the team is calling left hamstring discomfort. Melton, the team's second-round Draft choice last year out of Oregon State, is slashing .249/.344/.471 with 18 homers, 40 RBIs and 40 stolen bases through 82 games at High-A Asheville. Melton took over as the Astros' top prospect at midseason following the Trade Deadline, when the Astros dealt their top two prospects -- Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford -- to the Mets to acquire Justin Verlander. The latest Astros' Top 30 can be found here, and the Top 30 system rankings are here. The Astros come in at 30th, though the Pipeline crew points out the Astros' system hasn't been ranked higher than 27th since the rankings were expanded to 30 teams in 2000. And in that span, Houston has been to two World Series and has produced three players who received Rookie of the Year votes (Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, Jeremy Peña) and three more who might this year (Hunter Brown, Yainer Diaz, J.P. France). |
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THIS DATE IN ASTROS HISTORY |
Aug. 20, 1999: Hall of Famer slugger Bagwell tied a Major League record by drawing six walks in a 6-4, 16-inning win over the Marlins in Miami. Jimmie Foxx (July 16, 1938) and Andre Thornton (May 2, 1984) were the only players in history to draw six walks in a game prior to Bagwell, and Bryce Harper (May 9, 2016) has done it since. Only three other Astros have drawn as many as five walks in a game -- Biggio on May 27, 2006, Joe Ferguson on June 24, 1978, and Joe Morgan on June 2, 1966. |
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