Rangers Hope to Continue Ownership of Altuve

Jose Altuve is a hitting machine. In fact, in a league that features Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, you could easily make the case he's the best player in baseball this year through a month and a half.

It's far from scientific, but just take a look at the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports rankings of the top players in fantasy baseball, and there he is โ€” all 5-5 of him โ€” atop the rankings as the No. 1 player in Yahoo! Fantasy.

He leads the league in runs (38), doubles (17), stolen bases (15), on-base percentage (.433) and OPS (1.045). Oh, and he has nine home runs, which is just six shy of his career-high 15 last year, with four and a half months to play in the season.

Yet, the Rangers have found a way to keep Altuve at bay when the teams have met, and that could be a reason for the Rangers' domination of the Astros, winning 16 of the teams' last 24 games.

Since the beginning of the 2015 season, Altuve is hitting just .242 with a .783 OPS against the Rangers โ€” nearly 100 points less than his averages against all other teams.

It has to be frustrating for Altuve and the Astros given the Rangers' dominance over them and Altuve's importance to Houston's success.

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