Altuve, Murphy could team up for history at second

Let’s say that Jose Altuve of the Astros and Daniel Murphy of the Nationals maintain their leads in the batting races.

This would not be asking too much. Altuve won the American League batting championship in 2014, and Murphy emerged as an impact hitter in the ’15 postseason with the Mets. Their current performances aren’t flukes.

But they could make some shared history. If Altuve and Murphy win the batting championships, it would be the first year in modern baseball history that the batting titles of both leagues went to players who were primarily second basemen.

Second base had been considered a defense-first operation for much of baseball history. Lots of relatively little guys, players with good gloves, double-play fearlessness and slap-hitting tendencies. Altuve, at 5-foot-6, fits the little-guy image, but both he and Murphy are defying any sort of light-hitting second-base stereotypes.

The argument that the highest batting average is an archaic measure of hitting success holds some interest, but it is not the core issue.

“If the statistic is important to the player, then it’s important, period,” an AL manager said.

Winning the batting championship, in that sense, remains important. And for a second baseman, it’s something of a career breakthrough.

Second baseman Dee Gordon of the Marlins won the National League batting title in 2015. Before that in the Senior Circuit, …

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