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Jose Altuve makes no apologies for his sense of entitlement. Once or twice a week, he'll take a break from hitting line drives into the gap or the seats and reach base on a bloop hit or a four-hopper up the middle. He'll invariably blurt out that it was good to have the baseball gods in his corner. And up and down the Houston Astros' bench, teammates who just saw that .360 batting average posted on the outfield scoreboard will roll their eyes and chuckle. "As good as he is, he never feels he's good enough," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "He never just checks in -- and he's never going to give away an at-bat. He doesn't like not getting hits. Anytime he bloops in a hit, he says he needs it. And most of us look around and say, 'You don't need anything.'" Pete Rose, Tony Gwynn and other batting champions were renowned for doing everything in their power to make sure a second hit led to a third, and that third hit segued into a fourth. No hitter ever wants or expects to "give away at-bats." But it's always a challenge to summon the focus and hunger to produce when the score is 14-3, or it's baking on the field on getaway day, or 700-plus plate appearances are stacked like cordwood over the course of a 162-game season. Altuve possesses the requisite combination of bat speed, plate coverage, concentration and competitive will to keep swinging away through injuries, fatigue and all the other obstacles thrown his way. On the odd chance that he's unsure, the numbers say he's plenty good enough. From 2014 through 2016, Altuve led the majors with 641 hits -- a staggering 80 more hits than Robinson Cano produced as runner-up among MLB position players in that span. Not since Ichiro Suzuki was in his prime has a player had more of a knack for missing gloves and finding holes. As Altuve continues to crank out oddball combinations and inject himself into trivia questions, the evidence suggests he's getting better at age 27. In May, Altuve became the first player since Carl Crawford of the 2005 Tampa Bay Rays to record two doubles and two triples in the same game. Altuve logged his 21st three-hit game of the season Sunday against Toronto, and he made the final knock count: His single off Roberto Osuna in the ninth-inning began a four-run rally that carried the Astros to a dramatic 7-6 victory over the Blue Jays. Altuve made his fifth career All-Star appearance and hit .485 in July to win the American League Player of the Month award. It was the fifth-highest batting average in a single month since 1961, behind Todd Helton of the 2000 Colorado Rockies (.512), Pudge Rodriguez of the 2004 Detroit Tigers (.500), George Brett of the 1980 Kansas City Royals (.494) and Wade Boggs of the 1987 Boston Red Sox (.485). 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. While Altuve has a long way to go, he's established a solid foundation. His closest age-27 statistical comparable on Baseball-Reference.com is Billy Herman, a former Cubs and Dodgers All-Star second baseman in the 1930s and '40s who made it to Cooperstown through the Veterans Committee in 1975. Astros catcher Brian McCann spent eight years playing with Chipper Jones in Atlanta, so McCann is familiar with the attributes that make great players special. He sees that Cooperstown-caliber glow in a 5-foot-6, 165-pound package whenever Altuve steps to the plate. "His career up to this point has been absolutely remarkable," McCann says. "When you're around him and you talk to him, he's got that Hall of Fame mindset. He's looking to bigger and better things. That's what's kept him so consistent and so dominant for so long. "He's got a perfect swing. He's got great hand-eye coordination, and the power's been coming for the last 2-3 years. To watch him every day, I feel like I should be buying a ticket. I really feel like we're watching greatness.''  Altuve's achievements are magnified by a stature that suggests he's the least likely player in the clubhouse to be capable of posting gargantuan numbers. If and when he gives a speech at Cooperstown, he can reflect upon the watershed moment in his career when he attended a tryout camp in his native Venezuela, got sent home, and then showed up the next day uninvited for a second look. Special assistant Al Pedrique called Houston to tell general manager Tim Purpura the organization had a player in its midst, and Houston spent $15,000 to welcome Altuve to the fold. "I have six years in the league now," Altuve says. "Probably the first two years, people talked about my height. Now everybody has seen me play so much, they don't see me as 'Altuve is a short guy' anymore." Opponents are too busy trying to get Altuve out to worry about his dimensions. Pitchers who were happy to challenge him when he broke into the majors tread more carefully after Altuve hit 24 home runs last year, and this season he is on his way to 20-plus bombs again. According to FanGraphs, Altuve has seen fastballs only 49 percent of the time in 2017 -- the 139th-highest rate among 160 qualifying big-league hitters. Depending on the circumstance, Altuve is versatile enough to be patient or to ambush pitchers out of the chute. He ranks seventh among MLB hitters with a .485 batting average against the first pitch, and he's 21st overall (at .257) when behind 0-2 in the count. "One thing I put in my mind every day before the game is, 'Don't try to hit their pitches. Try to hit your pitch,'" Altuve says. "You're always going to get 2-3 pitches to hit a game. The key is not to miss it. This is Major League Baseball and it's the best players in the world. If they give you something to hit and you don't hit it, you're probably going to be out the next pitch. I have to hit the pitchers' mistakes -- and they don't make many mistakes." Last month, Altuve and Houston teammates Carlos Correa and George Springer were at the forefront of the American League MVP discussion along with Yankees rookie Aaron Judge. But Judge has slumped since the All-Star break, Correa is out with a torn thumb ligament, and Altuve has eased into the lead with his all-around game. He is third in the AL with 24 stolen bases (with an 83 percent success rate) and plays an above-average second base, according to the metrics and the eye test. If Mike Trout can lead the Los Angeles Angels to the postseason and maintain or improve upon his 1.166 OPS, he might make a run at the MVP. But Altuve has shown no signs that a letdown is in store. He has appeared in 107 games this season and has had back-to-back hitless games only twice -- against Texas in mid-June and Tampa Bay last week. A window of opportunity opened when Trout went down for six weeks with a torn thumb ligament, and Altuve was nimble and opportunistic enough to wriggle through. He's talented, team-oriented and greedy enough as a hit collector to see this thing through to the end. "When the big runs come, he hits balls all over the yard," Hinch said. "He hits fastballs, breaking balls and changeups. He hits balls off his shoe tops and over his head, and he does damage on the ball down the middle now. No matter where I hit him in the order, he's remarkable. "His bat-to-ball skills are as elite as anybody in the game. It's just a matter how many hits he's going to get now -- not if. Not too many people at this level can come to the ballpark and feel that way."
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