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

#13 Top Hitter

Richard Hidalgo by Elliott Jenkins

Richard Hidalgo was a staple of the Houston Astros’ thrilling 1990s and early 2000s. Between up and down years, Hidalgo had an incredible 2000 season, finishing as a finalist for the NL MVP award. He repeated the feat in 2003, flashing brilliance that the Astros wished he could have maintained for his entire tenure with the club.

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Let’s take a closer look at 2000. He finished with the Astros’ 14th-highest single season WAR with 6.3, which was good enough for 8th among NL position players that year. Hidalgo was 2nd in the National League in extra base hits with 89 and HBP with 21. Those extra base hits were also the 2nd highest in a single season in Astros history. He also finished 2nd in Astros single season slugging percentage with .636.

His 2000 season is 3rd in Astros history in single-season total bases with 355 and single season home runs with 44. He fell three shy of the Astros record held by Jeff Bagwell and only one shy of Lance Berkman’s 2006 campaign. He also holds the 4th-highest Astros single-season at-bats per home run with 12.7 and the 7th highest in Astros OPS with 1.028. And if that wasn’t enough, that was all while batting .314 and finishing with 122 RBIs, good enough for 9th place on the Astros single season leaderboard.

Hidalgo is 4th all-time in Astros slugging percentage with .501, HBP with 58, and OPS with .857. He is 9th all-time in Astros home runs with 134 and is 10th all-time in Astros extra base hits with 343. He is 12th all-time in Astros doubles with 191 and on-base% with .356. He completed his Astros career with 465 RBIs and 17.6 WAR, good enough for 13th all-time.

Next: 12th All-Time Astros Hitter