Following the 2015 World Series Championship win, the Kansas City Royals went immediately into rebuilding mode.  They would need a star to get them back to the playoffs, and they found him in Bobby Witt Jr..

Witt was taken second overall in 2019 from the University of Oklahoma and in 2021 he was named by Baseball America as the Minor League Player of the Year.  The following season, he cracked the Royals roster and was fourth in Rookie of the Year voting, but was still finding his way in the Majors.  The year after, Witt had a 30-30 year, led the AL in Tripled (11) and Power-Speed# (37.2).

Building on that breakout 2023 season, Witt exploded with not only his second 30-30 year (making him the first Shortstop to do so in back-to-back years), won the Batting Title (.332), led the AL in Hits (211), and won the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove.  Finishing second in MVP voting, Witt’s efforts propelled the Royals to their first post season in years.

Entering 2025, Witt is one of the top stars in baseball and has the making of a top five all-time Kansas City Royal.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2024 revision of our top 50 Houston Astros.

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball, we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note that our algorithm has changed, which yielded minor changes throughout the baseball lists.

Last year, the Astros expectedly returned to the postseason but were dismissed in two games in the Wildcard by the Houston Astros.  There was one new entry and three significant elevations.

As always, we present our top five, which saw no changes.

1. Jeff Bagwell

2. Craig Biggio

3. Jose Altuve

4. Lance Berkman

5. Cesar Cedeno 

You can find the entire list here. 

Of note, Jose Altuve remained at #3, and as good as he has been still has some work to do to surpass Hall of Fame inductee, Craig Biggio for #2.

The elevations were Alex Bregman (#11 to #8), Yordan Alvarez (#27 to #19) and Kyle Tucker (#33 to #23). 

The new entrant is Framber Valdez, who debuts at #31.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

Framber Valdez signed with the Houston Astros as an International Free Agent in 2015, and three years later he debuted for the club, which seems like the correct progression, but his initial signing at the age of 21 is older than normal than his Dominican counterparts.

Valdez needed time to find his confidence, and in the COVID-shortened 2020 year, he went 5-3 and was 11th in Cy Young voting.  He continued to grow his game in 2021 (11-6), but truly broke out in 2022, earning his first All-Star, with a 17-6 record, 2.82 ERA and was the league-leader in Innings Pitched (201.1).  Valdez finished fifth for the Cy Young that year, but more importantly, went 3-0 in the playoffs and helped Houston win the World Series.

He built on that with a ninth-place Cy Young finish (12-11, 200 SO) and a second All-Star, and last year was ninth in balloting (15-7, 2.91 ERA).

Valdez enters this year still in his peak, and with a three-year streak of top ten Cy Young finishes. 

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. Once that is done, we will examine how each team honors its past players, coaches, and executives. As such, it is important to us that the Chicago Cubs will induct Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee to their franchise Hall of Fame this year.

The induction of Sosa is the culmination of two decades of acrimony between Sosa and the Cubs.  Sosa, who was a beloved figure in Chicago in the 90s as he was going deep at an astronomical level saw the tide turn against him when it was believed that he took PEDs.  The last days of his run at Wrigley saw him leave early in the 2004 Season Finale.  The Cubs had stated that Sosa would not be welcomed back to the organization unless an apology occurred, which happened, albeit cryptically last December.

“There were times I did whatever I could to recovery from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games.  I never broke any laws.  But in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize.”

Sosa joined the Cubs in 1992 in what turned out to be one of the most lopsided trades in team history.  By the mid-90s, Sosa had at least 35 Home Runs from 1995 to 2004, winning two Home Run Titles (2000 & 2002), two RBI Titles (1997 & 2001) and won the 1998 MVP.  Sosa also won six Silver Sluggers, and as a Cub would compile 545 Home Runs, 1414 RBIs and a .928 OPS.

Derrek Lee played for the Cubs from 2004 to 2010 amassing 179 Home Runs, 1,046 Hits with two All-Star Games.  His best season was in 2005, where he led the National League in Hits (199) and Doubles (50) and was third in MVP voting.  He also won two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers as a Cub.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending members of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame.