Houston Astros: CTH’s Top-25 Astros All-Time Hitters

#18 Top Hitter

Dickie Thon by Eric Huysman

Thon is another Astro player who could have been hurt playing in the Astrodome. Thon was relatively average for most of his Astros career but had two standout seasons in 1982-83 where you could argue that he was the best shortstop in the game before he got injured.

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Even though I’m sure people could not have expected Thon to make the All-Star team, more of a shocker was that he hit 20 HRs that year. After doing most of his damage at home in 1982, the following season was a different story. Let’s look at his splits home and away during the 1983 season.

Home: .292/ .352/ .420/ .772/ 4 HR/ 14 SB

Away: .280/ .330/ .494/ .824/ 16 HR/ 20 SB

Looking at his stats from his breakout season with the Astros shows the difference His success with the Astros was short lived, as 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. He did play three more seasons with the Astros, but he was never the same player.

He could have been the Derek Jeter of that generation, a shortstop who can homer and steal bases. We will never know how good he could have been, but we will have to settle for his Astros career stats of .270/ 33 hr/ 172 RBI/ 94 stolen bases. He does have arguably two of the top five All-Time seasons for a shortstop: Astros’ All-Time Best Seasons: Shortstop.

Next: 17th All-Time Astros Hitter