Astros: Which players are on franchise’s Mount Rushmore?

Which four players belong on the Houston Astros version of Mount Rushmore?

We’re feeling nostalgic here at Climbing Tal’s Hill, and not just because our namesake has been relegated to the past. With baseball on hold, it’s a good opportunity to look back on the history of the Houston Astros franchise.

The idea crossed my mind as to which players would be on an Astros version of Mount Rushmore. Now the criteria for this is fairly simple — there are four spots available, and the players should be the four most important or most impactful players in the history of the team. How that exactly is judged is a little more complicated.

What’s not complicated, however, are the first two names to go on this list. Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell are the very definition of what we’re looking for. They were the faces of the franchise for 15 years, forged Hall of Fame careers spent entirely in Houston, and helped lead the team to some of its most successful heights.

Deciding on the other two is going to require some splitting of hairs. There’s no shortage of viable candidates for the distinction, so we’ll run through them and then try to narrow the list down to the two players who’ll join Biggio and Bagwell on the Astros’ Mount Rushmore.