The littlest prospect that could just got some big attention, as Keith Law added him to his Midseason Top 50 prospect list. Since Altuve previously hadn't been on any national radars and was ranked as the No. 28 prospect in the Astros system by Baseball America.
↵Since then, he's hit .408/.451/.608 in 52 games with Lancaster in High-A California League and then .360/.388/.554 in 32 games with Double-A Corpus Christi. That's the biggest reason Altuve made the leap to Law's list, where he said of Altuve: "The little man can hit. If he were 5-foot-10, the industry would be all over him."
↵Law's list is notable as going against consensus a bit. Being a former scout, Law sometimes makes calls based on his own scouting and goes against industry consensus. With Altuve, he may just be catching a swell before it begins. At this point, Houston has to be thinking that Altuve could be a solution at second base sooner rather than later.
↵The only knock on him this season is that his walk rate has fallen a bit. As long as it sits around 7.5-8 percent, like it did for most of the past three seasons, Altuve has a great shot at being an above-average big league starter, who could hit .320/.380/.420 in the big leagues. With a walk rate as low as it's been at Corpus, he's the second coming of Jeff Keppinger. That wouldn't be a bad thing, but Altuve seems to have the potential for much more.
↵Oh, and if you're wondering, that first line looks a lot like Dustin Pedroia's in his first full big league season. You know Altuve's going to be compared to Laser Show for as long as he's in the bigs.
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