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Astros: Jose Altuve, the Sporting News Player of the Year
By Cody Poage
A certain Astros second baseman comes away with at least one offseason honor.
The Astros 2016 season ended in disappointing fashion weeks ago without a playoff berth. There were still plenty of positives to take away from the season though. One such positive was the play of All-Star Jose Altuve. And one publication has decided to award the second baseman.
Jose Altuve has been named the 2016 Sporting News Player of the Year, an award which is voted on by players from both leagues.
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) October 27, 2016
Altuve was clearly deserving of the award as he put together one of the best seasons of any player in Astros history. In fact, there were instances when the 2016 AL Batting champion basically led the offense by himself.
2016 statistics: .338/.396/.531, 24 HR, 96 RBI, 30 SB, 7.7 WAR
Odds are that the 26-year old star won’t beat out the likes of Mookie Betts (9.6) and Mike Trout (10.6) for the AL MVP award this offseason. A tailspin over the last month of the season when Altuve hit .276/.328/.371 over a 29-game span. And he isn’t in the running for another Gold Glove at second base.
But the Sporting News of Player of the Year award is still an accomplishment. After all, he is only the second Astros player to receive such a honor. The first Houston player to win the award was none other than Jeff Bagwell. And the Astro legend had some high praise for Altuve.
Jeff Bagwell on @JoseAltuve27 joining him as only 2 #Astros in franchise history named @sportingnews Player of Year: "I think it's awesome" pic.twitter.com/CEnn8TJkyP
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) October 27, 2016
Per Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle, Altuve received 84 votes to earn the award. Second place was Betts with 64 followed by the likes of David Ortiz, Kris Bryant, Daniel Murphy, and Trout in that particular order.
This award does manage to confirm one truth: Altuve is slowly earning his way into the conversation of best players in Astros history.
When you think of the top players in franchise history your mind should automatically go to Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Nolan Ryan, J.R. Richard, Lance Berkman, and numerous others. Altuve should definitely be on that list now. Only time will tell how far up the list he will go.
**Statistics provided by Baseball Reference**