Astros Spring Spotlight: Tony Kemp

You all know him and love him (as a trade piece), but do you ever think, in your darkest recesses of your soul that he would really probably be as close to a replacement for Altuve as we could get.

Now Altuve is good, no denying that, but lets look closer at Kemp and if he could provide near comparable production to Altuve, if he was traded.  Kemp's minor league stats compare favorably to Altuve in walks and OBP at most levels (in the minors).  Even his wRC+ was better or equal to Atluve's until last year.  The only 2 areas that Altuve has a distinct advantage in are his ISO with is about 100 points higher than Kemp's and average.  Both have good OBP, high BABIP's and both have similar K%.  Where Kemp excels is BB%, something that I find very ideal in a leadoff hitter, something that I don't think Altuve is the best at.  Before you blow up on me, Altuve is a very good hitter but for a prototypical leadoff hitter, you want someone who can walk as well.

So back to Spring Training, now I don't think Atluve gets traded this year and maybe not at all, but wouldn't a package for him right now net us some top level talent without having to give up crazy amounts of production to get it.  So keep an eye on Kemp this Spring because he may be our 2B of the future.