The greatest Astro enters the Hall of Fame

That was a tough title to write. I love Craig Biggio. I do. He was everything you could ask for in a ballplayer. But he was not as great as the man who enters the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday, Jeff Bagwell.

Stats

Look at the Astro single season records held by Bagwell:

  • Highest BA – .368 (1994)
  • Highest OBP – .454 (1999)

  • Highest SLG – .750 (1994)
  • Highest OPS – 1.201 (1994)
  • Most Runs scored – 152
  • Most Home runs –  47 in a season (1994)/13 in a month (June 1994) – Including most in one season at Minute Maid – 28 (2000) in the Astrodome 23 (1994) and on the road – 30 (1999)

Career-wise?

  • His 449 HRs are 123 (38% more) than second place Lance Berkman
  • His 1529 RBIs are 354 (30% more) than second place Biggio
  • Most walks with 1401
  • He trails Biggio in hits, 2Bs, runs, because injuries cut short his career and he played in 700+ less games and had 3100+ less ABs than his buddy
  • His career .297 BA is behind Altuve and his .408 OBP, .540 SLG and .948 OPS are a tad behind Lance Berkman. Of course his numbers were over a much longer time and included his late decline

Intangibles and others

  • Rookie of the year – 1991
  • MVP -1994
  • Was an All-Star 4 times, though he failed to make the All-Star team in two seasons when he was top 10 MVP and one year when he finished with 124 runs, 34 HRs and 111 RBIs
  • Just by the eyeball test, even though he was not the swiftest Astro by a long shot he was one of the best  base runners in the game, rarely making a mistake on the bases, taking extra bases often and he stole more than 30 bases as a 1B twice in his career.
  • Again by eyeball he was one of the best right handed fielding 1Bs in the game due to his roots as a 3B and he perfected the art of charging the bunt and gunning the lead runners down.

Great Core Years

They often talk about how true Hall of Famers have a big core of years when they were truly great.

If you look at Jeff Bagwell’s core 10 seasons from 1994-2003, here are his numbers.

He averaged 116 runs scored, 36 doubles, 37 HRs, and 115 RBIs. Remember that 9 of his 15 seasons were in the cavernous Astrodome. He also would have had even higher numbers, if he had not lost about 100 games in 1994 and 1995 to two HBPs to his hands.

During those 10 seasons he averaged .301 BA/,419 OBP/.574 SLG/.993 OPS. One season like that would have been what most players would love to have on their resume.

Conclusion

Bags was the greatest Astro to play for the team. He did not have the longevity of the man he will always be linked to Craig Biggio. He did not have the playoff success of the only other man who was a great hitter and power hitter for the team. Lance Berkman. And he may one day get displaced by a Jose Altuve or Carlos Correa for greatest Astro ever.

But as he enters the Hall of Fame Jeff Bagwell can proudly wear the cap of the Astros as the greatest player to ever wear that cap to date.

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131 responses to “The greatest Astro enters the Hall of Fame”

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  2. I have to feel teams didn’t want to deal in the division, didn’t want to deal with Luhnow, or were happy to accept 50% of the return Houston could have offered. What a depressing deadline.

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    • Hi all, I lurk here but don’t post hardly at all. But here’s my question for the very knowledgeable people here. When we got Randy Johnson back in the late 90s, didn’t we give up top prospects? And it really didn’t work out. No World Series nor even a NLCS. I think we have the team to compete every year for a while. I don’t think I’d give up the top prospects for a rental. Today would have been more exciting if we’d landed a top flight pitcher but there’s no guarantee it gets us where we want to be and standing pat might prove the wise course if the other teams we were talking to wanted to much. I might want a new car but I’m not going to over pay for one. But, I also understand that there’s no guarantee that we will ever be this good again. Tough decisions with no easy answer I think.

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      • If I remember correctly the 1998 offense couldn’t get anything going against Kevin Brown. And due to TV scheduling
        The Astros faced him almost every game. At least it felt that way.
        I was really hoping Luhnow would go after Grey or someone signed for a couple of years. Not a rental
        I never regretted that trade. I loved watching Johnson pitch

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  3. First let me echo what DanP posted in prior post. There is a lot more that “we don’t know” than “what we know.” But lets look at trades made.

    Liriano with a career WAR of 17.6 may not get you excited. Did you want to ride with Sipp and the minor, minor leaguers in the bullpen? Did we gut the farm and roster by giving up Aoki or Teoscar? And no commitment in salary for 2018.

    Second, the Yankees gave up #4, #8 and #10 for Gray. Do you make the trade giving up Fisher, Teoscar, & Garrett Stubbs? What if A’s were not asking for Teoscar, but wanted Whitley or Bukauskas instead. Some Yankees blogs are complaining they “gutted” the farm system for Gray. Back up a year, do you trade KTuck, Moran, & Feliz?

    Did we all forget the anguish when we traded Hader, Phillips, Hauser, & Santana for Fiers & the future Texas Ranger?

    I have been no fan of JL, but I have to take his word that he tried and thought he was 90% close and it fell apart at the last minute. And he told the clubhouse, I think you guys can win it all.

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  4. No use crying over trades that were not made. Charlie Morton is about to face Corey Dickerson. We need to win tonight’s game if at all possible, and go on from there.

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  7. Just my 2 cents. I am disappointed for whatever reason I felt we could have pulled off something bigger and better than Lariano. I don’t think that makes me or anyone that agrees, a fair weather fan or we jumped off the Astros wagon. I am not calling for Uncle Jeff to be fired , I guess the deal wasn’t there for some reason. I – we just are passionate about this team

    I’m pretty sure we will win more than we loose the rest of the way, we have a really good team. I’m just very nervous about all our pitching versus great teams in the playoffs , not the regular season Go Stros

    On cue 8-2

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  12. I’ve managed to cool off a little bit, but I’m still mad as hell not enough was done to get another arm for this rotation. Heard Crane and Luhnow say Fisher is up to stay,and I’m glad. Luhnow said every team he talked to wanted Fisher, while I can appreciate that, I doubt Fisher was “untouchable”. No team has ever won it all with smoke and mirrors, and I’m not optimistic this rotation as it sits today can get there.
    My favorite pitcher pitches tomorrow night…..Chris Archer is a STUD!!

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  15. Apparently Mr. Luhnow came very close and is disappointed. He wouldn’t give up Fisher, Tucker, Perez, Whitley and Martes, who were key requested chips. I guess I’m glad he stuck to his guns on that. Not too sure about the move he did make, and Aoki’s feelings were hurt, that much is clear. What I do know is that Mr. Luhnow knows way more than I do. Was about to use an emoji but the paper this morning says not to.

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