Houston Astros Boss Offers Exciting Praise to Rookie Cam Smith Amid Hot Streak

The Houston Astros are starting to hit their stride as a ball club, winning 10 of their last 13 and finally creating some distance in the American League West.

A huge part of the reason they have been playing so well lately has been the step taken in the last month by rookie outfielder Cam Smith.

The youngster has experienced a ton of ups and downs this season and for a large portion of the beginning of the year looked overwhelmed.

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Having played just five career games at the Double-A level before bursting onto the scene in his first spring training with the Astros organization, questions were rightfully asked whether Houston made a mistake promoting him this quickly.

Over the last month though he has figured things out, and his teammates and coaches are starting to notice.

After another game on Wednesday night in what has been an incredible series for Smith against the Athletics, Astros manager Joe Espada praised his rookie stud with a quote that will shoot excitement through the fanbase.

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"He’s starting to look like the Cam Smith that we’re all expecting him to be at some point in his career," Espada said via Theo DeRosa.

Houston knew they were getting a special prospect when they received Smith as the centerpiece of the Kyle Tucker trade return from the Chicago Cubs, but they certainly did not expect it this quickly when they made the deal.

As a 22-year-old, Smith has pulled up his slash line this season to an impressive mark of .276/.347/.424, but it has taken some real work to get to that point.

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In the last 30 days (25 games), Smith is slashing .318/.362/.489 with 28 hits and 14 RBI, finally breaking out of his home run drought as well with two blasts on Tuesday.

The way he has switched to a new position and excelled defensively while grinding through offensive struggles to put up big numbers at the plate has been incredibly impressive.

Smith is starting to show some true superstar potential that the Astros fully believed was there but did not anticipate for a couple of years.

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As a result, Houston is in prime position to make another run at an American League pennant and might have just found themselves a future face of the franchise to continue this same level of team success for many years to come.

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