http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6548504.html It's long and has a lot of stuff in sidebars that are also good reads, so I'm not dealing with quoting the article here It's a good one, though.. I think any Astros/Bagwell fans would enjoy it a lot
Would have been nice to ask him what he thought of some of the minor leaguers rather than just asking about what he tells the players stuck behind the current OF. Always nice to read about Bags or Biggio. I grew up idolizing those guys.
I never knew that the great Rudy Jaramillo was the Astros hitting coach. The guy has helped many a player with their hitting up here in North Texas. How'd we let that guy go? Was it a two-for-one with Nolan? Shudder to think what he could've done with Hidaldo and Ensberg when they went through their struggles?!?
A perfect opportunity to post a comment about an article I came across a few months ago. In the publication Metro, there was a brief feature discussing A-rod and steroids (dated February 20-22, 2009...page 22). At the bottom was a section titled, Team game: Baseball's most 'roided teams Oakland, the Yankees, and Texas were discussed in brief paragraphs, as was Houston. This was what was written about Houston: ASTROS. The obvious two that stick out down in Houston are Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, who reached the World Series in 2005. The two fireballers ranked first and second in ERA that season. Add Jeff Bagwell to the list of likely abusers for the 'Stros as well. This was written by [wannabe] sportswriter Sean Quinn (sean.quinn@metro.us). Crap reporting.
The bad thing about that article is neither Clemens nor Pettitte have been accused (or admitted to) using steroids while with Houston. Based on that, why didn't he include Tejada and Caminiti (rhetorical question). Also, I never understand why folks use 'Stros. Considering the ' is only replacing one letter, it's just as easy to spell out Astros.
Been looking for this information since the most recent idiotic blowup about Bagwell and steroids, how they always say "he hit only 6 HR in the minor leagues." Well, their site had been down for quite a while, but www.hartfordhawks.com is now up again. From Bagwell's Hartford Hawks Hall-of-Fame page: Left the University ranked among the program's top five career leaders in nine categories, including the top spot in home runs (31), runs batted in (126), batting average (.413), slugging percentage (.733) and total bases (293). Left University as the all-time New England leader in batting average and slugging percentage. So, while 31 dongs in 3 seasons ain't exactly Ruthian, it's a more than a little silly to pretend that Bagwell suddenly became a power hitter in 1991.
Well keep in mind he did change batting stances when he got to the Astros organization. That had just as much to do with his power than his steroids. (I'm kidding about the steroids)
Speaking about steroids, I found a list of the 103 players "rumored" to have juiced up in 2003. If its been posted, then sorry, but I didn't see it anywhere. But I'm not going to lie. I was looking for Bagwell's name and Biggio. And I was surprised when I saw Nomar's and Lima's 1.Nomar Garciaparra 2.Manny Ramirez (Confirmed NY Times) 3.Johnny Damon 4.Trot Nixon 5.David Ortiz (Confirmed NY Times) 6.Shea Hillenbrand 7.Derek Lowe 8.Pedro Martinez 9.Brian Roberts 10.Jay Gibbons 11.Melvin Mora 12.Jerry Hairston 13.Jason Giambi 14.Alfonso Soriano 15.Raul Mondesi 16. Aaron Boone 17.Andy Pettitte 18.Jose Contreras 19.Roger Clemens 20.Carlos Delgado 21.Vernon Wells 22.Frank Catalanotto 23.Kenny Rogers 24.Magglio Ordonez 25.Sandy Alomar 26.Bartolo Colon 27.Brent Abernathy 28.Jose Lima 29.Milton Bradley 30.Casey Blake 31.Danys Baez 32.Craig Monroe 33.Dmitri Young 34.Alex Sanchez 35.Eric Chavez 36.Miguel Tejada 37.Eric Byrnes 38.Jose Guillen 39.Keith Foulke 40.Ricardo Rincon 41.Bret Boone 42.Mike Cameron 43.Randy Winn 44.Ryan Franklin 45.Freddy Garcia 46.Rafael Soriano 47.Scott Spiezio 48.Troy Glaus 49.Francisco Rodriguez 50.Ben Weber 51.Alex Rodriguez (Confirmed Selena Roberts) 52.Juan Gonzalez 53.Rafael Palmeiro 54.Carl Everett 55.Javy Lopez 56.Gary Sheffield 57.Mike Hampton 58.Ivan Rodriguez 59.Derrek Lee 60.Bobby Abreu 61.Terry Adams 62.Fernando Tatis 63.Livan Hernandez 64.Hector Almonte 65.Tony Armas 66.Dan Smith 67.Roberto Alomar 68.Cliff Floyd 69.Roger Cedeno 70.Jeromy Burnitz 71.Moises Alou 72.Sammy Sosa (Confirmed NY Times) 73.Corey Patterson 74.Carlos Zambrano 75.Mark Prior 76.Kerry Wood 77.Matt Clement 78.Antonio Alfonseca 79.Juan Cruz 80.Aramis Ramirez 81.Craig Wilson 82.Kris Benson 83.Richie Sexson 84.Geoff Jenkins 85.Valerio de los Santos 86.Benito Santiago 87.Rich Aurilia 88.Barry Bonds 89.Andres Galarraga 90.Jason Schmidt 91.Felix Rodriguez 92.Jason Christiansen 93.Matt Herges 94.Paul Lo Duca 95.Shawn Green 96.Oliver Perez 97.Adrian Beltre 98.Eric Gagne 99.Guillermo Mota 100.Luis Gonzalez 101.Todd Helton 102.Ryan Klesko 103.Gary Matthews
