That George Foster, who slashed .302/.369/.560/.929 with 174 HR and 566 RsBI between 1975-1979 & won an MVP in 1977 (+ finished 2nd in '76), was their fourth-best hitter is pretty bananas. Those '75-'76 Reds were crazy.
Big Red Machine was what I hoped this current Astros era would be compared to. I’m afraid the cheating scandal (fair or not) would diminish that argument too much for most fans to make that comparison, regardless of the numbers
F*** 'em... just keep winning There's pitchcoms now and many players from those Astros teams currently on those same naysayers' teams. Let the hypocrites hypocrite
For me, Altuve is unquestionably the best player we ever had, but the problem is he isn't the most interesting. And that is what sucks about it. That's why he's not famous. Bagwell had the beard and Stance. Biggio had the helmet. Ryan had the strikeouts and heat. But ultimately, Altuve is the guy.
You are seriously comparing him to Biggio and Bagwell and saying he's the boring one? Legendary players, absolute personality vacuums on the field and dealing with the media. We as Astros fans have gotten used to him so we don't notice it anymore, but Altuve is very, very small for a MLB player.
Altuve is by far the most interesting, for good and bad. We love the good (and it should be everyone's focus) ... tiny, always the underdog, reinvented himself as a hitter. But the nation sees the bad (2017 association, unfounded buzzer crap, hit a HR to beat their favorite team). No prior Astro ever got full stadium chants in opposing stadiums, or the type of unconditional love at home. Altuve is a historical icon across MLB. Bagwell and Biggio were great players no one outside of Houston cared about, and many in Houston dismissed as postseason chokers.
Its the most bizarre argument. Hypothetically projecting what Bagwell COULD have done with a larger playoff sample. He has a playoff sample and its not great. More importantly, it ignores completely that not only has Altuve excelled in the playoffs, he is among the greatest playoff players of all time. Whatever people want to say about Bagwell's postseason, Altuve's postseason success is an entire element in itself that Bagwell simply lacks completely. It puts him in a totally different tier for me.
One of the greatest playoff players of all time hit .190/.242/.241 in 13 games last postseason. He also hit .154/.185./.154 in his first postseason. I agree Altuve deserves bonus points for his personal playoff success, as well as the team's. But I don't take anything away from Bagwell. There's only a handful of guys that have any postseason appearances for it to really ding them.
Biggio and Bagwell were basically afterthoughts in their playing days. They were not mentioned much outside of Houston and they lacked All-Star appearances. The playoff ineptitude didn't help either. Jose Lima might be the most interesting Astro ever.
790am is debating this right now. Stan Norfleet thinks Biggio is the greatest. He needs to stick to football.
Had the exact same thought - I'm not really sure *Astros* fans cared that much about Bagwell's beard/stance. And by default, almost *anybody* is more interesting than Bagwell and Biggio, easily two of the most boring, benign great players in baseball history. Altuve's story though, is the joy of baseball perfectly encapsulated.
