Houston Astros: Breaking down Jose Altuve’s admirable request

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve made a special request recently and he thinks it will help the team. What’s going on and will it work? Look.

The Houston Astros are finally back at .500, reeling off their third-straight win and an opportunity to sweep the series against the Seattle Mariners this afternoon.  After earlier struggles in the season, the offense has seemed to find their way and the production from the bullpen has improved a bit as guys get acclimated to their respective body of work.

The return of Yordan Alvarez has boosted the lineup’s potency with his presence and it was great to see him pop off a homer Friday night in his first at-bat of the 2020 season.  He’ll gradually get back to the player we’ve come to love but it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch him get his groove back.

Just based on how he got things started in his debut, he’s been cleared for takeoff and he won’t need that much runaway to get up to cruising altitude.  The AL Rookie of the Year is an integral part of the roster and it makes them that much stronger with him just being in the clubhouse period.

But while we’re talking lineups, the Houston Astros have been shifting things around a bit and for the first time in goodness knows how long, one of the players was moved down in the lineup.

As you saw, Jose Altuve has been moved to 7th in the batting order because of continued struggles at the plate this season.

Alex Bregman has moved into the third spot, with George Springer leading off, Josh Reddick‘s hot bat following and Alvarez hitting clean-up.

Typically this is a move that the manager makes in the best interest of the player but Altuve did go

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to Dusty Baker and request that this change be made.

That takes a lot of guts for a player of his caliber and I’m positive he hasn’t batted that low since his debut back in 2011 when he was some undrafted prospect that had been on the rise and earned his way to the big leagues.

We didn’t know if he was going to be a flash in the pan or something great and now he’s definitely on track to be the next member of the Houston Astros to have his number retired and if he keeps up his momentum, Cooperstown may be calling shortly after he calls it quits.  I don’t think a player of size — he stands likely 5-foot-5 barefoot — has ever been able to do what he has accomplished in his career.  That speaks volumes.

And with Altuve likely putting this slump behind him soon, it goes to show what type of person he is that’s willing fall on his sword for the betterment of the team.  He’ll creep back up to the top of the lineup again but right now, there are other guys that are hitting better than him.

Altuve did finish up going 1-for-3 yesterday with one RBI so the move looks promising but it remains to be seen if it will have some type of effect on the team’s production, which only accumulated six hits in a 2-1 win over the Mariners last night.

Let’s hope for the best!

Altuve has been batting .181/.253/.313 with three homers, 10 ribbies and two stolen bases through 83 at-bats in 19 games this season.