Jose Altuve: The Fastest Mr. 1,000 In Astros History, 2nd in MLB

Watch Out Craig Biggio. Jose Altuve is Chasing Some Astros Records.

The Houston Astros lost again versus a good team in the St. Louis Cardinals, losing 8-5. There were a few bright spots for the Stros. Alex Bregman got his first MLB home run, and Jose Altuve reached 1,000 hits in only his sixth season if baseball. While in the grand scheme of things, 1,000 hits will not get him into the Hall of Fame someday. However, how he got the 1,000th hit might help.

Altuve is now the fastest Astros player to reach 1,000 hits since Cesar Cedeno record-setting accomplishment. Cedeno accomplished that feat after playing 889 games in his MLB career. Altuve did something that Craig Biggio didn’t even do. He reached the 1,000 hit mark after only 786 career games. That was 11.6% quicker than Cedeno reached 1,000 hits.

Two hundred hit seasons have become a regular for Altuve as he leads the MLB with 170 hits. With 43 games remaining for the Astros in 2016, he should easily get 30 plus more hits to reach 200 for the third season in a row.

In other words, he is becoming a legend.

Other fastest players to reach 1,000 hits.

Astros’ legend Jeff Bagwell got his 1,000th hit in his 890th game. Bob Watson, who is now suffering from kidney failure, got his 1,000th hit in his 952nd game. Hall of Famer Biggio only had one 200 hit season. Altuve is about to have had his third. Someday, this will be the moment where people across baseball realized how good Altuve was/is.

Regarding a major league record, Altuve falls into second place behind Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro got most of his hits early in his career. Hence, he has stayed on as a part-time player to reach 3,000 hits. Ichiro got his 1,000 hits in 696 games. Pete Rose took 831 games to reach that mark.

How good could Altuve be?

People know he’s good, but I think some of the people who don’t regularly follow the Astros think he’s a batting average and stolen base guy. He has emerged as an all-around player by being great defensively and adding the power element. Altuve is only 26.

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Some people can question where his power came from, no names. These people that say this probably don’t watch Altuve play too much. He has a great eye at the plate and one of the quickest swings you can find in the game. If he plays 12 more years, until he is 38, he should have no problem reaching 3,000 hits.

I am not naive enough to think that Altuve will continue this pace for the next twelve seasons. However, he could gain most of the hits over the next few seasons. Seems like he is in the prime of his career and is in the midst of one of the best seasons in Astros history.

The best WAR by a second baseman was Biggio in 1997 with 9.4. Altuve had a WAR of 6.8 at the time of broadcast of Talking Stros on Monday. It is now up to 7.0 after last night’s three-hit game.

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Watch out Craig. Jose is coming after you!

***Stats from Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs***