In the past three seasons Jose Altuve has only unintentionally walked 81 times in 2068 plate appearances. This means that although his batting average is .313 in that time his OBP is only .349. Also in that time, Altuve has gotten out on base by trying to steal or advance extra bases 11% of the time. These were the reasons that in the past I have said that Altuve was somewhat overrated (This is an article I wrote about Altuve last year where I discussed his true value as opposed to how he was ranked). However his performance so far this year has caused me to completely rethink my previous assessment, because Altuve seems to have changed a lot.
Based on his unintentional walk rate in the past Altuve would only have 4 walks so far this year in his first 110 plate appearances, but, instead he has 12. The odds of this outcome not showing any real change in Altuve, but simply being because of luck, are 1 in 800, so I am fairly certain that Altuve really has changed. This not to mention the huge power surge Altuve has had, going from about 1 home run every 81 plate appearances previously in his career to 1 every 18 plate appearances now, this will probably settle down a little, as it already has with only 1 home run in the past 47 plate appearances, but he still has shown a change here that he will likely keep (to some extent) through the rest of the season. Although many may see Altuve's changes to be small, I would say he has gone from somewhere around 40th to 60th most valuable player in the majors to somewhere 5-15th most valuable with his new approach and new power.