TCB Astros Hitter of the Week: August 26 - September 1

It has been quite an up-and-down week for the Astros.  They have had some games where the bats came to life, and some where they couldn't hit at all (and some where they hit a lot but not at the right time.)  They also lost one of their best hitters for most of the week and their starting catcher who had been hitting well over the last two weeks.  Here are a few guys who helped the team move forward, or at least tread water.

Honorable Mention

Jake Marisnick

Yes he still strikes out too much.  Yes he doesn't walk enough.  But Marisnick in seeing his first full-time play in a while this season has done well for a nine hole hitter.  He batted .286 and had an OBP of .318, which are both well above his season averages (and well below his incredible April stats).  With the defense he brings, this is what the team (and fans) hope for from Jake.  He needs to be a guy the Astros can slot down in the bottom of the order who gets on base for Altuve, etc.  He has the wheels to get in scoring position and get around the bases quick when the ball is put in play, and he did that this week.  Plus he showed a little pop.  If he has got it all figured out this time that would be awesome.

Evan Gattis

For those who look at batting average first, it doesn't look like Oso Blanco had that great of a week.  Look a little deeper and the stats look much better.  His OBP was .320 and slugging was .550.  He hit two homers and drove in five runs.  In his spot in the lineup, driving in runs is his job.  My personal favorite at-bat from him this week (besides the two home runs of course) was a 2-strike sacrifice fly to drive in a run.  This saved me from having to see 5000 tweets about how the Astros can't get a runner home from third with less than two outs.  Yes I am selfish.

Winner

Jose Altuve

Gigante is back to 2014 form.  His August was great overall, as he reached base in every game the team played.  Over the last week he has been a workhorse.  He had a hit in every game.  Four of the six game were multi-hit games, including a 4-for-5 performance against the Twins and a 3-for-5 against the Mariners.  His slash line over this week was .481/.500/.630.  He added a homer, four RBIs and four runs scored for good measure.

Altuve has brought his season average up from .299 on August 15^th to .318 at the end of last night.  He is not going to reach his hit total from last season, but if he keeps this up he has an outside chance at back-to-back 200 hit seasons, which has never been done in the history of the organization.  He is not your typical lead-off hitter, but I am not going to argue with the success he is having.