Jose Altuve is the Houston Astros second baseman. He is currently the shortest player in the MLB standing five feet five inches tall. There was a time when the Astros told him he simply wasn’t good enough to make the team and today he is also currently an American League MVP candidate.
At .347 he has the highest batting average in the American League. In June he is hitting a ridiculous .435 according to USAToday.
He also has the most stolen bases in the AL, 36, and the most hit in baseball, 116. An Astros franchise record is 123 hits before the All-Star break – he is only seven short with 12 games left to play.
"He's the best player in baseball," manager Bo Porter says. "It's not just his numbers, but the impact he has on the game. He's the MVP of this league."
On Sunday Altuve stole two more bases at Minute Maid Park and helped his team beat the Detroit Tigers 6-4. Since Ray chapman in 1917, Altuve is the first player to steal multiple bases in four back to back games via Yahoo.
Altuve says his role model is Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox who is only a few inches taller than he is. "I never let my size matter, just like Dustin Pedroia," says Altuve. "Even when I got cut from that tryout camp, when they cut it down from 50 to 20, I still showed up the next day. I wanted to prove they made a mistake, and that I could be a big-league player.”
Today he certainly has earned the right to be an All-Star.