He’s 24 years old and already has his legacy secured. That said, just for the sake of argument, let’s consider if Altuve stays on the pace he’s been on through the early weeks of this season, 2 Wins Above Average over 33 games entering Sunday. All the same, Morgan didn’t look like anyone’s future Hall of Famer or the centerpiece of a trade when Houston discarded him.Over his first five seasons in Cincinnati, Morgan racked up 37.8 Wins Above Average and two National League Most Valuable Player awards. I guess you would say that he was regarded as a “nice little player,” pun intended. After hitting .389 at class A and AA in 2011, Altuve was called up to the majors and, just a couple of months past his 21st birthday, made his MLB debut on July 20th. And while it’s far from a sure thing just yet, Altuve also is starting to look like he could be a serious Hall of Fame candidate down the road.Granted, having a lot of hits early in one’s career is no guarantee of a future Hall of Fame plaque.

He hit just .194 in the World Series, but those few hits came in the biggest moments.Shortly after the conclusion of the Fall Classic, Altuve was named the American League MVP for his stellar work during the regular season. Let’s remember, though, that Houston was still in a full re-build; the 2013 edition won just 51 games and lost 111 so it’s not like Altuve had Gehrig and Ruth to drive him in.The 2014 Astros improved from 51 to 70 wins and Altuve became a legitimate All-Star and one of the game’s top players.

If Altuve were hit by a bus tomorrow, he wouldn’t make the Hall of Fame.

He’d been a two-time All Star to this point and his average in Houston of 5 WAR per 650 plate appearances suggests he might have deserved better recognition. Only 10 second basemen in history have topped 2,500 knocks and they’re all enshrined in the Hall of Fame except for the still-active Robinson Cano.Another World Series title for Altuve’s Astros would help as well. Altuve hit .400 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Three players in that group are Hall of Famers, and Helton looked like a lock before a late-career power decline made him a borderline candidate. The best thing is that Altuve doesn’t need a change of scenery to make it happen. In Game 1 of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox, he had his Reggie Jackson moment. It’s especially true that the post-season has a way of elevating an excellent but largely overlooked player into the status of a superstar.Up until the 2017 postseason, Jose Altuve was well known and respected among serious baseball fans but not as well known to the casual observer. Please follow Cooperstown Cred on Twitter Assuming Collin meant “keeps Joe Morgan out of” the top of a lot of that leader board through age 29 seasons.Is Bill James’s new formula for the HOF Monitor available online anywhere [without subscription, anyway]? Houston Chronicle Vada Pinson, Cesar Cedeno and Buddy Lewis each topped 900 hits by their 25th birthdays, with each falling far short of Cooperstown for different reasons (injuries, personal problems, and World War II, respectively.) ... And Altuve will be a Hall of Fame caliber player who will probably fall into the grasp next. This is how Altuve ranks in a variety of statistical categories with the 29 total 2nd sackers who accumulated at least 4,000 plate appearances through their age 29 seasons.Altuve, through his age 29 season (his 9th in the majors) has a batting average (.315) only 13 points shy of the legendary There’s are some cautionary tales on this list. But the 28.2 Wins Above Average that Trout compiled from his second through his fifth season in the majors is better than, wait for it, 62 Hall of Fame players. What he did last night in Game 6 of the ALCS is certainly worth a great deal in putting the fame in his Hall of Fame resume. Houston’s pitchers did their part, holding the Bronx Bombers to one run. It’s dangerous to project small groups of stats over an entire season, since players often regress to their means. The cleats donated by Jose Altuve to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum are now on display in the “Today’s Game” exhibit. Sometimes, infielders like Altuve can play key roles for good teams but wind up underrated for lack of gaudy power numbers. Any number of factors can turn a young, potential Hall of Famer into an also-ran. Even if Altuve regresses a little to, say, 7 Wins Above Average for the year, it’d probably still leave him in MVP contention. Altuve was hardly an instant star but a serviceable starter at the position.In 2012, Altuve started to make a name for himself, hitting .360 in the month of April. During these six seasons, Altuve also has, with that minimum of 4,000 PA…The offensive statistics alone place him among the top 10 position players in baseball over the last seven seasons.

Short answer: He’s on track, but he has work to do. Immediately, he became the starting second baseman for the rebuilding Astros. While Altuve … The Big Red Machine had a lot of great players, though maybe it wouldn’t have risen to the same heights without Morgan. Overall, as the ALCS MVP, Altuve hit .348 with 2 home runs, 3 RBI and 6 runs scored in a performance that adds to his burgeoning Hall of Fame case.Altuve is the first player to end a postseason series with a walk-off blast against the Yankees since Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. In that series, the 29-year old Venezuelan hit .350 to go with 3 home runs, 5 RBI and a 1.281 OPS.In this piece, originally written in October 2017 and updated early this morning, I’ll take a deep dive into Cooperstown progress achieved by the Astros star second baseman.Ever since 1903, when the first World Series was played, October baseball has had a way of putting the “fame” into a baseball player’s Hall of Fame resume. They become Lou Whitaker or Willie Randolph or Frank White, all second basemen who have their Hall of Fame supporters but face long odds of getting in.This season, though, Altuve has nine home runs and is on-pace, at least for now, for 44 home runs, to go with 108 RBIs and a .323 batting average.