Brown pitched 14.2 IP against us that round, so I'm guessing he pitched twice. Man, that 1998 may have been our most loaded team ever...
May have been? It definitely was. What an epic fail. I remember Brown pitching relief in one game. *edit- just looked it up, Brown never relieved, but he did warm-up one game
The 2004 team, IMO, is the best team in franchise history: Bagwell, Biggio, Kent, Berkman, Beltran, Clemens, Pettitte, Oswalt, Lidge.......
Bagwell was passed his prime by '04 and hit a bunch of meaningless HRs that season. His average, OPS, and K/BB were all bad.
Pettitte was injured almost the entire year. We also lost Wade Miller that year and were dreaming Carlos Hernandez would be able to come back. I think we'd have won the WS though if the team had been healthy. We got beat by Sterling Hitchcock
Past his prime, yes. But still a very good baseball player - 116 OPS+ & 3.7 WAR (which ranked 6th among 1B that year).
You'd think the post Berkman, we'd now realize just how hard it is to get those numbers from an everyday 1B.
There were 8 guys on that '04 team that are in Cooperstown, should be in Cooperstown, or have/will get significant consideration for Cooperstown. That team was unbelievably stacked. I loved the '98 team; it was very, very good. But Bagwell/Biggio/Kent/Beltran/Berkman/Clemens/Pettitte/Oswalt/Lidge > Bagwell/Biggio/Alou/Johnson/Wagner
Must've been a down year for 1B's. I just recall Jeff not performing in key situations that season. For instance, Astros were down 3, late in one game. He's the tying runner at the plate... strikes out. Then same game in the 9th inning, hits a HR to bring us within 1 run. I just recall his striking out many times in key spots that season. HOFs are great, but '04 Biggio and Bagwell were remotely close to their '98 status. It's not an equal argument to simply put: '04 Big/Bags > '98 Big/Bags and act like it's even. You also didn't mention some good/very good players from '98. Hidalgo, Berry, Bell, and Everett all posted similar (if not, better) OPS+ as players you mentioned as making the '04 squad better. Those other '98 players aren't HOFs, but they don't need to be in a single season comparison.
Oh, well... you didn't tell me you were armed with fuzzy anecdotal evidence of a single game that may or may not have happened. I stand corrected.... Yeah, sure. List all the scrubs you want.......
