With a captip to Appy Astros for the link, Baseball America posted their mid-point leaders for the minors, and Jose Altuve (AVG) and Kody Hinze (HR) are on the list.
What do they say about Altuve?
Jose Altuve hit .301 at two Class A stops last season (561 plate appearances), on the heels of a cumulative .306 showing in two years in the Rookie-level Appalachian League (360 PA), so he has a clear track record of hitting for average. His crazy .395 average this year has been propped up by an otherworldly showing at home in the high Class A California League prior to his bump to Double-A. Altuve hit .464 (52-for-112) in 28 home games for Lancaster, collecting a hit slightly more than half the time he put the ball in play (50.5 percent). At his current pace, Altuve would collect 225 hits over the course of a 140-game minor league season. In case you're wondering, the highest hit total from 2005-10 belongs to the Mariners' Kyle Seager, who collected 192 last year.
We have come to Altuve's aid from BA's vicious attacks questioning his abilities to hit outside of Lancaster before, and it's worth noting that - through 26 games at Corpus - he's still hitting the ball often and hard. In 18 home games at Corpus, he has a .389/.400/.556 line, compared to .364/.400/.667 in eight road games.
So yes, Altuve was Video Game Good at Lancaster, and while hit OPS is almost 70 points lower at Double-A, it's still a Stupid Good .990. So Baseball America can kindly eat one.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
