Reigning MVP Altuve picking up right where he left off
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jose Altuve has not needed much time to feel ready to pick up where he left off as the American League Most Valuable Player and a World Series champion last season.
After 17 at-bats, Altuve is hitting .412 and launched his second homer Wednesday.
It is only spring training, but Altuve’s strike zone appears impenetrable, the barrel of his bat is difficult to miss and his fitness is unquestioned.
“I feel good,” the second baseman said. “I’ve been working really hard to the point where I want to be. I don’t know yet if I’m ready, but I’m really, really close to where I want to be. I’ve had enough workouts to feel like I’m prepared for the season.”
The only thing left is to increase his consistent punishment on pitchers.
“Right now I see one good at-bat and the other one not so good,” he said. “When I show up one day and I have three or four quality at-bats in a row that’s a good sign.”
He does not pay attention to his home runs so much as his overall rate of hard contact.
“Results doesn’t matter right now,” he said. “I hit it hard — that’s what I want to do.”
Altuve is a leader who sets an example with his play, rather than instruct others to follow. He is a big reason why the team has seemed businesslike on the eve of the franchise’ first season as defending champions. He embraced his rising celebrity during the offseason, but he said he placed all of that behind him in a lockbox to revisit later. He began focusing on 2018 a month before camp opened.
“We know we are good — the World Series champions — but I think we are doing a really good job leaving that behind us,” he said. “It’s nice to win a World Series, but it’s really nice to win another one. For us, in order to get another one, we have to forget what we did last year.”
Electric scooters create buzz in camp
George Springer discovered a large package beside his locker Thursday.
“Oh, is this my scooter?” he said.
Astros players are on a shopping spree this week. Some have ordered electric scooters to zip around Minute Maid Park. There is a “3-mile walk,” as Springer described it, to the players’ parking lot.
Josh Reddick already started riding his around the West Palm Beach camp. He buzzed by Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who is visiting as a special instructor, on Thursday morning.
“Red,” Springer said, teeming with excitement, as a clubhouse attendant cut open the box. “I think we got some action.”
Springer watched Ken Giles put the gray scooter together in less than 10 minutes.
Before the assembling was complete, Springer imagined the perils of taking on hilly knolls around the facility.
“Hit someone with this, you’re doing 25 to life.”
Springer left his new ride parked at his locker. He walked out of the clubhouse with an extra bounce in his step.
“Guy’s got a scooter now,” Springer said to himself. “Hot.”