On July 20, 2011, one unsuspecting prospect of the Houston Astros was called up to the bigs in the midst of a season that would have the Astros end up 56-106. He was, to the public, a joke, standing at just 5' (maybe) 6". He put up a sold line (.276, 2HR, 7SB) for a guy just breaking into the league. Then he became the starter in 2012 and never looked back, going to the All Star games in 2013 and 2014 and winning this year's AL batting title.
Yours truly personally got to see Altuve in 2011 when he was with the Class A Advanced Lancaster JetHawks. His home runs were lazers, his speed was rivaled only by teammate Jonathan Villar, and he was flat-out fun to look. He was promoted to Double A after batting an otherworldly .408 in 52 games. When he continued to be too much for minor league pitchers to handle he was called up to Houston.
Altuve continued his steady rise to MLB stardom with a final season total of 225 hits, seven homer runs, 59 RBIs, and 56 Steals in 2014. Batting second most of the year lead Altuve to a whopping 660 at-bats, second most in the MLB. Altuve lead all the majors in hits and became just the second Astros player ever to amass at least 200 hits. He is now the Astros all time single season hits leader after he passed Craig Biggio at 211 hits. He was second behind only the Dodgers Dee Gordon in stolen bases with 56. And for the first time ever in the Houston Astros history, Altuve brought home a batting title. This of course an AL batting title, but they never had one in the NL, either.
No matter the size of this man, Jose Altuve had one very impressive year. Not only did he put up some big numbers, but he aided in the fragile process of the most risky and drawn out rebuilding process in the MLB, ever. With Altuve's star on the rise in Houston, there's no telling the potential of the future for the Astros. Now can you please give him the AL MVP?