Happy Birthday to the great Jeff Bagwell, one of the better First Baseman of all time, especially from the offensive side. It’s great when you see a ball player have the type of career that earns them a spot in the Hall of Fame, but it’s even sweeter when the player does it with only one team for their entire career. As a minor leaguer, Bagwell was traded from the Red Sox organization in August of 1990 to the Astros, and the following year he’d make the Astros team, where he’d make the transition from Third Base to First Base, playing his entire fifteen-year career in Houston.

Houston Astros Jeff Bagwell batting in game, 6-9-2002 in Oakland

Career (1991-2005):

.297 BA, 2,314 HITS, 449 HR, 1,529 RBI, 1,517 RUNS, .408 OBP

  • 1991 Rookie of the Year
  • 4x All-Star
  • 3x Silver-Slugger
  • Gold-Glove 
  • 1994 MVP
  • 30-30 Club

Jeff Bagwell was a power hitter but hit for contact too, and was a great baserunner. He drove in 100 or more RBIs eight times and scored 100 or more Runs nine times. Most of his career was in the old Astrodome, considered a tough ballpark for hitters, and all the Astros home games occurred there. That didn’t stop Bagwell from putting up six consecutive seasons having at least 30 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 RUNS, and 100 Walks, which no other player in baseball history has done. In the 1994 strike-shortened season, Bagwell won the MVP that year with a (.368 BA, 147 HITS, 39 HR, 116 RBI, 104 RUN, and .451 OBP) stat line in 110 games. Despite only winning one Gold Glove in his career, he was a tremendous defensive First Baseman, having a lifetime .993% Fielding Percentage throughout 18,521.1 Innings at the position. Another part of being great is being in the lineup 150-plus times a year; Bagwell did that in ten of his fifteen-year career.

Had it not been for some severe shoulder injuries that started kicking in in 2001, Bagwell could’ve easily played longer, performed better, and eclipsed the 500 Home Run milestone. Nonetheless, he’s got over 1,500 RBIs, a lifetime OBP over .400, an MVP, a good amount of black-type on the back of his baseball card, and eight what I like to call “Hall of Fame seasons.” That’s Hall of Fame worthy to me, and it took a while for him to get into the Hall due to suspicions of PED use. However, no concrete evidence of Bagwell being linked to PEDs wasn’t named in the Mitchell Report.

References:

  1. Jeff Bagwell Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bagweje01.shtml
  2. Jeff Bagwell via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bagwell