Astros’ All-Time Best Seasons: Shortstop

1984: Craig Reynolds

Dickie Thon committed 29 errors in 1983, after only 15 in 1982.

Craig Reynolds inherited the shortstop position after a pitch from Mike Torrez hit Dickie Thon right above the left eye, which kept Thon out of the lineup for the rest of the season.

Replacing a player like Dickie Thon is a hard task, especially for utility man Craig Reynolds. Following Thon’s historical season, Reynolds had his best year. Reynolds had started for the Astros earlier in his career, so the transition was seamless.

He could not duplicate Thon’s hitting, power, or speed, but he did what he could including hitting a career-best 60 runs batted in. He could hit at the Astrodome, as evidenced by the splits below.

Home: 0.263/ 0.291/ .0.355/ 0.646/ 0 HR/ 5 SB

Away: 0.257/ 0.282/ 0.373/ 0.655/ 6 HR/ 2 SB

His stats (from Baseball Reference):

• .260 BA/.286 OBP/.364 SLG/ .651 OPS
• 137 hits
• 61 runs
• 15 doubles
• 11 triples
• 6 HRs
• 60 RBI
• 22 walks
• 3.0 WAR

Believe it or not, Adam Everett had a better year than Reynolds, and I wanted to get a certain shortstop in at the end of this list. But in the end, I thought that the situation that Reynolds faced replacing a type of player like Dickie Thon.

Did You Know: Craig Reynolds appeared in two All-Star games. What years were they, and was I even born at the time?

Next: 2004: Adam Everett