That would have been a probable historic season to finish out. Gwynn was so close to .400. A few guys chasing 60 HRs.
Jeff Bagwell has become really under-rated by Astros fans. Jeff Bagwell had 80 WAR in less than 8,000 at bats. The guy was for his CAREER a 6 WAR player for 150 games played a season. His career OPS+ is 150 and only three players currently playing have an OPS+ higher (Trout/Soto/Judge) and it is highly unlikely that Soto finishes his career higher, and it is 50/50 that Judge or Trout do. Since 1975 only 6 players have had a higher career OPS+ than Jeff Bagwell, and two of those (Thomas/Soto) were poor fielders..... and three others were admitted steroid/HGH users (Bonds/McGwire/Ramirez). Hell - Bagwell has a higher career OPS+ than Albert Pujols, A-Rod and Griffey Jr. This is with Bagwell missing three to four seasons at the end of his career with an injury and playing in the Dome early in his career. I love Jose Altuve, his bat has become quite under-rated, and outside of injury, he has shown no inclination to slow down....... but if Bagwell was the 1st baseman on the Astros starting in 2015, you better believe he would be the Astros best player and would hit in the post season.
Altuve is the number 1 Astros player of all time. He brought the hardware and was the leader of the team while putting up great numbers. It would be like comparing Hakeem and James Harden. One brought the Rings and great numbers. The other was historic in the regular season, an MVP level player every year. But struggled in the postseason. The argument that Jeff would have hit in the postseason is bizarre. He hit a more hitter friendly era and struggled against less talented pitchers. And why do you have me arguing against my favorite player growing up? Don't do this to me.
My favorite quote from Hack Wilson: " No sir - no I never played a big league game drunk, I wouldn't do that. Now hungover, that is different. I did play hungover." The guy basically gave up trying after Rogers Hornsby became the manager for the Cubs - Hack liked to do his own thing, and his business with the Chicago outfit away from the game he felt was his business. He never threw a game or gambled on the Cubs or Giants - but he did enjoy drinking and he did enjoy hanging out with Frank Nitti (who replaces Al Capone) after day games, and he doubled as a top boxer in Chicago - but he always played well and hard when left alone. His mother and father were raging alcoholics if I remember right. I know his mother was dead by 25 years old and Hack claimed he could lick his father and uncles in bare knuckle fighting by the time he had hair on his legs. By the end his wife kicked him out and his son (I think Bobby or George was his name) disowned him. Hack was found passed out and non-responsive in a gutter in his 40's, and was taken to the hospital were he died. At the time they said he died from mob issues and alcohol poisoning but no autopsy was done. His son and wife refused to claim his body and I want to say the Cubs ended up claiming him and burying his body... such a Chicago in the 1940's way to die for the man that was the NL Babe Ruth for 6 years.
I love Altuve and he is on the Astros' Mt.Rushmore But he hasn't quite passed Bagwell yet, though he is gaining and has a few years to get there. (I can't see him not getting extended)
Bagwell is my all-time favorite Astro. What's funny is that all these haters are the same ones who squawked and complained when he kept getting passed over in the HOF voting.
It isn't like comparing Harden and Hakeem - because Hakeem was the better player, regardless of post season success. Also, Bagwell didn't struggle every year in the playoffs - he struggled in an 11 game sample from 97-99 in the playoffs, for a total of 39 at bats. After that Bagwell (2001, 2004, 2005) did fine.......... in 2001 he had an OPS of almost 1.100 against the Braves in the playoffs, and in 2004 he followed up with facing the Braves again and had an OPS of nearly 1.100 again.... that year the Astros beat the Braves and then played the Cardinals and had a mediocre OPS of .688 in the series....... the next year, with a jacked up shoulder, he played the Braves in the post season again and again had an OPS of 1.000 and the Astros beat the Braves again, and then the Astros played the Cardinals where he only had one at bat due to injury. He tried playing in the WS as an injured pinch hitter/DH and was 1-8 when he had no business even playing. His overall OPS the last three times he played the Braves in the playoffs was over 1.000 and his overall OPS was around .800 the last three times he made the playoffs, and that includes 2005 when he only played 39 games with an OPS under .750 and was clearly injured and done as a player - he would never play again. It isn't bizarre to think that Bagwell wouldn't overall struggle in a larger sample size in the post season, when he would be surrounded by the hitters the Astros have had the last 10 years - and he also would not be facing the Braves Hall of Fame staff every single season (Bagwell made the post season 6 times and faced the Braves 5 times and the one year he did not face the Braves, he faced Kevin Brown and still had an OPS of .981 in that series). I am not saying that Bagwell was some wonderful post season player - but a lot of the issues were earlier in the year when he was in the post season (the first two times he faced the Braves and Padres). For his career in the post season Bagwell barely had over 100 at bats and that was spread out over a number of years. Also the argument that Bagwell struggled against lesser talented pitchers just isn't true either - his first trip to the playoffs saw his face Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz - who in 3 games combined to throw two complete games and won all 3 games. The Braves literally only used 5 pitchers in that entire series, the other pitcher was Wolers who threw 100 MPH as a closer. The second playoff series was against the Padres and in 4 games the Astros faced Kevin Brown twice (who was 18-7 with a 2.30 era that season) and Sterling Hitchcock twice. The third playoff series the Astros again faced the Braves.... the Astros faced Glavine twice, Smoltz twice Maddux and Millwood (who was 18-7 with a 2.60 era that year). The fourth playoff series Bagwell faced Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz and Bagwell had an OPS over 1000 The 5th playoff series Bagwell faced the Braves again and faced Glavine, Smoltz, Ortiz and Hampton and Bagwell again had an OPS over 1.000 The 6th series was against the Cards and did "okay" with an OPS of 6.88 The 7th series is the one where Bagwell was hurt - he faced Smoltz and Hudson and some how had an OPS of 1.000 in limited chances....... The 8th time he played the Cardinals and had one at bat - then the White Sox, and injured was 1 for 8.
As @Nook correctly pointed out: too many Astros fans are *vastly* underrating Jeff Bagwell. I know you're linking Olajuwon to Altuve, via rings - and I get it. But, honestly, Bagwell is much closer to Hakeem than Altuve is. If we all agree Olajuwon is a top 10-15 player of all-time (certainly top 20)... Bagwell is easily a ~top 50 hitter all-time. Altuve isn't - and, frankly, he's not close. I'm not even sure he's a top 10-15 2B all-time - or even the best *Astros* second baseman of all-time. (He probably is - but it's close.) Also, I know Altuve has been far more good than bad in the postseason - I'm not here to disparage any of his incredible October accomplishments. But, just FYI: Bagwell totaled 129 postseason plate appearances: .226/.364/.331/.695 In Jose Altuve's last 139 postseason plate appearances (all of '21 + '22): .200/.273/.376/.649 The Astros went 15-25 with Bagwell; 20-9 during Altuve's stretch, with one ring and two pennants. We blame Bagwell for one; excuse Altuve for the other. Again, I *fully* understand why - I'm just pointing out how we tend to cherry pick the ever-living **** out of an enormously small sample size. Heck, since 2020 - his last 199 plate appearances - Altuve is hitting .249 in the postseason. He's living off of '17-'19, right now. And I know, I know - '17-'19 was AWESOME. Again, the point isn't to in anyway disparage Altuve. it's just to shine a light on how we filter postseason results.
At some point, Altuve may get close enough to Bagwell, numbers-wise - and at that point, I think it's fair game to let Altuve's postseason accomplishments be the difference maker. But - again, numbers-wise - Altuve isn't in the same galaxy as Jeff Bagwell. At his current pace, if Altuve were to total Bagwell's 9,431 plate appearances, he would trail Bagwell in bWAR by 16 points (79.9 to 63.9).
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/hack-wilson/ As far as books go - there are a couple of them that are not bad, but they are incomplete - Wilson at one point fell off the radar. Fouled Away: The Baseball Tragedy of Hack Wilson Paperback – May 15, 2000 by Clifton Blue Parker (Author) This is the best biography but it is hard to find.
Astros have had some great second basemen and moments from second basemen. 22 Astros have played at least 100 games at 2B. 3 are in the hall of fame. 3 are former Astros managers. 2 have famous and important post season hits. 1 is the son of a player from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. 1 has the most HR as a 2B of any MLB player. 1 gave me my first ever box of baseball cards. There must be tons more I missed.
Talking about this post with my older son who is super old now. I tend to agree with you, cause I watched Bagwell. I was in the Dome when he hit two homers in the same inning vs the Dodgers. I had his Rising Star poster hanging in my dorm room at Baylor in 1992. I also wore his blue/gold tshirt to Little Rock to visit my new girlfriend’s family…she’s my wife now Sat next to Bags at Fuzzy’s about 2 years ago and my kids were like, hey no big deal…just a hall of Famer sitting next to us. I love the tension in this discussion because my grandparents never saw either of them. And they’d love both of them. They’d be blown away by where we are now. Man, I love this team So much a part of my story and the background to every summer of my life
