While Jeff Bagwell was a career-Astro, his journey began in the Red Sox organization, who drafted him in the fourth round in 1989. He was traded one-on-one for Pitcher, Larry Andersen, and it would turn out to be a very one-sided deal.
Bagwell debuted in 1991 and won the Rookie of the Year, with a 163 Hits season. Three seasons later, Bagwell was on fire, in the strike-shortened 1994 tear, he led the NL in Runs Scored (104), RBIs (116), Slugging Percentage (.750), OPS (1.201), and would bat .368 with 39 Home Runs. That was clearly the best year of his career, but he still had a lot of high-end production.
The four-time All-Star would have four more .300 seasons and eight more 30 Home Run Seasons. Along with Craig Biggio, he would lead the Astros six post-seasons, with the last one late in his career. That was 2003, where the Astros won their first Pennant.
Bagwell retired three Batting Average digits shy of the 3/4/5 club with 449 Home Runs, 1,529 RBIs and 2,314 Hits. The Astros retired his number 5, and he entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017, his seventh year on the ballot. Naturally, he would be part of the first Astros Hall of Fame Class in 2019.
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