Astros All-Time Best Seasons: Right Field

This is the seventh edition of our Astros’ All-Time Best Seasons Series. The Houston Astros have had a history of very, very good rightfielders, and it was admittedly very difficult to narrow it down to just five nominees. (There will be a couple of honorable mentions for you to vote on at the end).

George Springer (Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports)

If you want to catch up on the other positions that we’ve covered in this series, you can check them out here:

• Catchers
• First basemen
• Third basemen
• Shortstops
• Leftfielders
• Centerfielders

According to Baseball-Reference, 27 players have slotted into the RF spot over 53 years as a franchise, identical to the number of starting centerfielders in franchise history. Just by looking at the list, I attribute that the amount of turnover to the versatility of the guys playing rightfield. Lance Berkman, for example, played one season there, you might recall. Jose Cruz, a leftfielder for the majority of his career, also dabbled in some rightfield in the earlier years of his career.

Just as I did for centerfielders, the only threshold I have for ranking these players is that they had to have played a full season (> ~130 games) for the Houston Astros as primarily a rightfielder. There’s one exception to that rule on this list, but I think you’ll be willing to let that slide when you see his stats.

To see the top 5 seasons by a Houston Astros rightfielder, click through the following slide show of candidates. And if you so desire, you can exercise your right as an American citizen and vote for your favorite (including honorable mentions) at the end of the presentation, as well as any particular season you think I might’ve missed.

Next: 1986: Kevin Bass

1986: Kevin Bass

*chills*

Next: 1998: Derek Bell

1998: Derek Bell

Another great Houston Astros team, another rightfielder having a career year. On a 102-60 team, Bell put up uncannily high numbers:

• His slash line: .314/.364/.490
• 22/home runs/41 doubles/108 RBI
• 198 hits as seen above (Jose Altuve is not impressed)
• (Again, not a big runs scored guy, but): 111 runs, 24 more than his next-best season

And here’s the real indicator that things were ‘wicked good’ for Bell in ’98: 5.4 WAR, almost double his next-best season, when he put up 2.8.  He was actually fifth amongst N.L. rightfielders with five errors that year, but, to an extent, who cares? His offense that season was more than enough of a boon to keep his bat in the lineup every day, and he played in a career high 156 games. Pretty impressive IMO, even if his lackluster postseason numbers (.091(3/33) over his career in Houston), helped prevent three talented teams from advancing past the NLDS in ’97, ’98 and ’99.

Next: 1967: Rusty Staub

1967: Rusty Staub

My, my, doesn’t that uniform look awfully familiar?

I’ve always felt like Rusty Staub is one of those ‘forgotten Astros,’ so I feel it’s my duty to give him a small moment in the limelight. (Here come the comments from guys who are older than my dad telling me they remember Rusty Staub just fine…sorry fellas).

In ’67 on a team that finished 69-93, Staub quietly put up beastly numbers:

• Slash line: .333/.398/.473
• 10 home runs (but wait)/44 doubles/74 RBI
• Struck out just 47 times (to put things in perspective, Jose Altuve struck out just 53 times last season)

Staub wasn’t great in the field, and made 11 errors in ’67, but again, those offensive stats overshadow that. He put up a 5.1 WAR despite his fielding woes, which wasn’t a career high, but it was for his career in a Houston uniform.

I’m not sure if Staub has much of a chance of ever sneaking into the Hall of Fame, (probably wouldn’t wear a Houston Astros hat anyway, fringe Expos fans rejoice!) but with 2,716 career hits, 499 doubles and 1,466 RBI, he’s got to be one of the very, very good players in baseball history at the very least.

Oh, wait, 2,716 hits isn’t impressive, because he played for 23 years, and guys who play that long are just “stat aggregators,” right? Right?  

Sorry, no need to travel down that wormhole again, but good Lord, what has the baseball writing world come to?

Next: 2000: Moises Alou

2004: Lance Berkman

This is where you say “Berkman played rightfield?” Well, I admit, this one is kind of cheating. Berkman played 90 games in right and 70 in left on the 2004 team that was, again, oh-so-close. So sue me, I want to throw the Big Puma into the mix.

• .316/.450/.566
• 30 home runs/40 doubles/106 RBI
• (not going to brag about strikeout numbers on this one)

By Berkman’s career’s standards, this is actually a pretty average offensive season. (This is your friendly reminder that when Lance was in his prime, he was one of the best all around hitters in the game). It was slightly above his average defensively though: he made 11 outfield assists that season and only made two errors.

His 6.0 WAR was, um, pretty good, too. That’s actually tied for third-best in his career though, and in 2005, a very special year as we all know, his WAR was just 3.2. Wacky how these things work out sometimes.

Nonetheless, yes, Berkman was only *technically* the primary rightfielder, but I felt I couldn’t leave him off this list. That kind of production out of a corner outfielder is about as good as you can ask for.

Next: Vote: Best All-Time Astros Season at RF

Before we get to voting, I’d like to send a special shoutout to honorable mentions 2009 Hunter Pence and 1977 Jose Cruz. I’ll put them on the ballot so you can vote for either one of them if you so choose. As I mentioned before, here is your chance to express your opinion. All five seasons that I covered are on here, but feel free to write somebody in if you feel like I overlooked somebody, and of course, leave a comment below if you feel really strongly about a certain guy. All fan-voted results will be posted with a brief recap on February 22.