Jose Altuve, Houston's Dimuntive AA Second Baseman, to Bring Hot Bat to Houston

The Houston Astros have called up 2B Jose Altuve from AA Corpus Christi. The move was necessitated following the trade of Jeff Keppinger.

Keppinger was acquired by the San Francisco Giants in exchange for two interesting minor league arms, Henry Sosa and Jason Stoffel (more on those two at a later time). Altuve will likely receive the lion's share of playing time at second for the remainder of the season.

Altuve has been swinging a hot bat all season, playing at both high A Lancaster and most recently AA Corpus Christi. For the season he has batted .389 with a .426 on-base percentage and .591 slugging percentage. He has knocked 10 home runs and a total of 42 extra-base hits. Altuve is also a patient hitter, who does not strike out much, although he does not draw many walks either.

Altuve is a threat on the bases as well, he has stolen 24 bases, although he has been caught 14 times. Altuve turned 21 in May but he will not be the youngest Astro—Jordan Lyles will not turn 21 until October.

It will be interesting to see how well Altuve acclimates himself to the Major League club. He has after all skipped the AAA level, coming straight to the Majors from Corpus Christi and he is still so young. However, he has certainly deserved the call up after the way he has performed thus far in the minors.

His promotion also follows a recent trend from the front office to aggressively promote their prospects. It has worked thus far for Altuve. Let's see what he can do!