Astros: Yordan Alvarez already raking and he’s not even here yet

The Houston Astros may need more than just Yordan Alvarez, but it’s nice to know he’s already raking before he even gets his glorious return.

It was in the opener against the Giants that fans made it clear what they want most for the Houston Astros. It isn’t the return of George Springer. It isn’t good form for Lance McCullers Jr. It’s Yordan Alvarez.

Air Yordan has been absent from the Houston Astros picture since Spring Training, with no update given as it was simply said he was injured and could not join the team. Whatever the case, he’s gradually returning to health and Dusty Baker even said that Alvarez is making “progress” but that there’s no timetable set.

It’s hard to get hyped about that, but it’s not hard at all to get hyped about Brian McTaggart’s report from Corpus Christi.

Yordan Alvarez is already pre-raking in an Astros jersey

Of course, any intrasquad numbers are best to be taken with a grain of salt. I mean, really, .600? No one can be expected to put up these kinds of numbers and to get psyched about his return just because of how well he handled and hit intrasquad pitching is silly.

Wrong.

Forget that grain of salt. Everything Yordan Alvarez did in his rookie of the year campaign last year was out of this world. It seemed like he was breaking records every day. None of those numbers were supposed to happen and yet they did.

Which just goes to show you that there is no ceiling too high for Alvarez to hit…

…within reason.

I’m not expecting Alvarez to hit .600, but those power numbers? He did that. He had a bit of a strikeout problem at times, but he did counterbalance it with a hefty supply of walks, so who’s to say he can’t see more walks than strikeouts when he joins the team?

Alvarez rakes, plain and simple. So the fact that he’s down there raking intrasquad pitching is just the prequel to the bigger story here—that’s he’s getting ready to rake Major League pitching.

Of course, what this actually means is still unclear, as has been everything regarding Yordan Alvarez. All we can do is be patient and watch reruns of his three-homerun night against he Orioles. Or is that just me?