ONE. WEEK.

Dan Shedd said:

---

Ordered mine online, can't wait to get it!

---

Different strokes for different folks but I personally hate flex hats. very few ever fit my head the way id like either too tight or too loose, then they stretch out over time also.

The Porkchop Express said:

---

Farmer1906 said:

---

You don't like Julio?

---

I like him fine. I just think there's another young star who actually did something in the post-season that could have been on that cover.

---

ONE WEEK until Opening Day brings us to #7 on the jersey countdown.



Whoever the hell Merritt Ranew is wore it first, then it became the property of catcher John Bateman from 1963-1968. He was a big old hoss back in the day - 6'3, 210 pounds, born in Killeen, grew up in Oklahoma. He caught the franchise's first no-hitter, thrown by Don Nottebart, in May 1963. His best year came in 1966, when he hit .279 with 17 HR and 70 RBI. He eventually went to Montreal then was traded to the Phillies for Tim McCarver. Check out this stat: In 1972, Steve Carlton was 7-6 with a 2.86 ERA when McCarver was catching him. After the trade, Bateman caught Carlton exclusively, and he went 20-4 with a 1.60 ERA the rest of the season with Carlton calling him, "The best signal caller he ever played with." He died young, at age 56.



Another catcher, Johnny Edwards, wore #7 next, from 1969-1974. He was a three-time All-Star with the Reds early in his career, but was made expendable by the arrival of Johnny Bench. He played a ton in his early years in Houston, 151 games in 1969, 14 in 1970. He didn't hit much, although he had an unusual number of triples in Houston - 4 or more 3 different times. He had a career fielding percentage of .992, and his caught stealing percentage was between 44%-48% each of his first three years.

After two forgettable stints by Robbie Wine in #7 in the mid 1980s, the Astros declared in June of 1988 that they were bringing up their 1987 #1 draft pick, Craig Biggio, who was all of 22 years old. The Seton Hall star had hit .375 in 64 games of A ball in '87, and was hitting .320 at AAA Tucson through the first 77 games of 1988.

When he was introduced, many in the media asked why a 12-year-old was coming to play catcher, but soon after realized he just had a baby face.



He was pretty terrible on offense to start his career despite playing almost every day. In his first 32 games he had 0 homers, 1 RBI, and was batting .188 when he came into the game as a pinch hitter vs. the Cubs in a 6-6 game in the 10th inning and hit his first career homer off Goose Gossage to give the Astros the head.



He hit .211 as a rookie but was the starter in 1989 and elevated to .257 with 13 HR, 60 RBI, and 21 steals, becoming the first Astro catcher to ever win a silver slugger award. He was also really terrible trying to throw out baserunners, like Gary Sanchez terrible. You're going to think I'm making this number up, but I'm not. In 1989, Biggio gave up 140 stolen bases and only caught 29 guys; 17%. The Astros didn't want to lose his speed, so they initially tried him in the outfield, but finally moved him to second base in spring training 1992. It wasn't really that outlandish because he had played all over the infield until college in 1986. Still he was coming off back-to-back All-Star appearances as a catcher, including hitting .296 in 1991.

Not only did he play second base in 1992, he played all 162 games! He set new highs in runs (96), doubles (32), hits (170), and stolen bases (38), and the Astros soon found he was just getting warmed up.

In the strike year of 1994, he led the NL with 44 doubles and 39 stolen bases while batting .318. Those would have been paces of 62 doubles and 55 steals.

In 1995, he lead the NL in runs (123, a new Astro record) and hit by pitch (22), while hitting 22 HR, stealing 33 bases, driving in 77 and hitting .302.

When the Astros finally broke through to the playoffs i n1997, Biggio scored 146 runs, the most by an NL player in 65 years, had 191 hits, 37 doubles, 8 triples, 22 HR< 81 RBi, 47 steals, hit .309 with a 4.15 OBP and a .501 slugging percentage, and got hit 34 times. He finished 4th in the MVP voting behind Walker, PIazza, and Bagwell.

He repeated the rare combo of .300 BA / .400 OBP / .500 SLG again in 1998, when he became only the second player in MLB history (Tris Speaker the other) to have a season with 50+ doubles (51) and 50+ steals (50). He broke the Astro team record for doubles and for hits, with 210. In 1999, he hit 56 doubles, and hit .294.

Between 1994 and 1999, Biggio was an All-Star 4 times 5 times (7 trips overall), won 3 Gold Gloves at 2B, finished in the Top 10 for MVP 3 times, and won 4 Silver Sluggers. He remains the only player in MLB history to be named to the All-Star team at both C and 2B, and win the Silver Slugger at both positions.

Grab ahold of this stat: Excepting the strike year of 1994 and his rookie year of 1988, 2000 was the ONLY YEAR in Biggio's career where he didn't have at least 500 plate appearances and play in at least 135 games. What a freaking warrior. He missed 61 games with injuries in 2000 after suffering a season-ending knee injury (THANKS PRESTON WILSON), then bounced back to score 118 runs, hit 20 homers, and hit .292 in 2001.

In 2001, he became the first Astro to reach 2,000 hits.



Let's not fail to appreciate that somehow pitcher Wade Miller was running second to third on this play.

He struggled some in 2002, although he hit for the cycle, and in 2003 took one for the team by moving to center field at age 37 so the Astros could make room for Jeff Kent. He scored 100+ runs in 2003 and 2004 at age 37 and 38, and start developing a power stroke to reach the Crawford Boxes, hitting 24 HR at age 38 and a career-high 26 at age 39.

In 2003, he broke the NL record for career leadoff homers, finishing with 53, third all-time in ML history.



Biggio's early struggles in the post-season were subject of much conjecture for years. In his first 4 playoff series, all losses, he hit .083, .182, .105, and .167 with a total of 1 RBI.

However, in the 2004 NLDS, he hit .400 against the Braves with a 1.105 OPS and 4 RBI. In 2005, he hit .316 vs. the Braves and .333 in the NLCS vs. the Cardinals. It's not Altuve, but he ended it well.

In 2007, Biggio did the impossible, getting to 3,000 career hits with a 5-hit game, something no one else has done. And then getting thrown out by 87 feet trying to make #3,000 a double, but I digress.



He announced his retirement on July 24, 2007, and hit a grand slam later that day against the Dodgers.

He was an incredible humanitarian for the Sunshine kids, and his final game as an Astro, he hit a double, #668 of his career.



For his career, he is 18th in games played
15th in at-bats
16th in runs scored (1,844)
26th in hits (3,060)
38th in total bases (4,711)
6th in doubles (668)
67th in stolen bases (414)
39th in singles (2,046)
20th in times on base (4,505)
2nd in hit by pitch (285, behind a guy who died in 1928).

The best of them all. Craig Biggio.

This team has been blessed times 1000000 at 2B.

Morgan
Doran
Biggio
Altuve

I'm not sure any other team can boast a run like that. Certainly not in the last 60 years.

Didn't he go an entire season without a GIDP?

Mathguy64 said:

---

This team has been blessed times 1000000 at 2B.

Morgan
Doran
Biggio
Altuve

I'm not sure any other team can boast a run like that. Certainly not in the last 60 years.

---

and dubon....???

Lance McCullers Jr on Altuve: “I think when guys are searching for greatness, they just don’t truly understand how good they are or how special they are. They just think they’re getting by in a way... And I think he doesn’t understand the scope of his greatness.”

— The Astros Locker WS Champs (@TheAstrosLocker) March 23, 2023

Man, sometimes I miss all of the flashes of cameras when big moments, like Biggio's 3,000th hit, happen in sports.

Ag_07 said:

---

I'll throw this out for the stat gurus...How far apart are Pena and George's numbers?

IIRC George wasn't a prototype high OBP guy but managed alright in the leadoff spot.

I'm probably wrong but I kinda think they're pretty similar. You give up some OBP but you get a bit more pop in the leadoff spot.

---

Springer's lowest OBP in a season was .336 as a rookie. Pena's was .289. However, Pena's spring OBP is .320

The problem with Pena is that if you get last summer Pena instead of last fall Pena, it's a lot of strikeouts to start the inning.

I would love to see Bregman leading off because he's so patient and knows how to work a count. Getting a guy to throw 7-8 pitches to start the game sounds delightful, but I am aware that Bregman is much better served in the middle of the lineup, particularly batting ahead of Yordan so that if he gets on, the pitcher is effed.

If Brantley was healthy, I'd consider him leading off too because he's a great contact hitter who doesn't strike out much. I'd consider Tucker as well, because he can run.

My fear of Pena leading off is he tries to do too much during the long grind and regresses. I'm sure there will be a lot of tweaks before a leadoff replacement man emerges.