Astros: Best individual seasons in club history — first base

We continue with our series ranking the best individual seasons in Houston Astros history by position.

After examining the best individual seasons by catchers in Houston Astros history, moving on to first base was a little easier. There were some obvious candidates for the list and no shortage of excellent seasons to pick from.

Now again, each player can only appear on the list once, which is helpful because otherwise, the top four on this list would all be by one certain Hall-of-Famer. I rank them by Baseball-Reference’s wins above replacement metric, which factors in both offense and defense.

5. Yuli Gurriel – 2019

Gurriel slides into this list thanks to a breakout 2019 season in which he hit .298/.343/.541 with 40 doubles, 31 homers and 104 RBIs. He also was named a finalist for the Gold Glove and compiled 3.9 WAR for the campaign, the best mark of his career.

4. Glenn Davis – 1986

More from Climbing Tal's Hill

• Just how much better is the Houston Astros playoff rotation than the rest?
• Houston Astros: A Lineup Change to Spark Offense
• Astros prospect Hunter Brown throws 6 shutout innings in debut
• Always faithful Astros World Series champion Josh Reddick defends the title
• Michael Conforto declines Astros’ 2-year, $30 million offer

Davis set a career-high in RBIs on the 1986 division championship team, earned one of his two All-Star selections and was the runner up in the NL MVP award voting. He totaled a .265/.344/.493 line with 32 doubles, 31 homers, 101 RBIs and 4.5 WAR.

3. Bob Watson – 1977

The longtime Astros player and future general manager didn’t make the All-Star team or get any MVP consideration in 1977, but it was statistically his best year. He hit .289/.360/.498 with career-high tallies of 38 doubles, 22 homers and 110 RBIs, giving him 4.7 WAR.

2. Lance Berkman – 2008

Berkman had better offensive seasons than this, though some were when he played outfield early in his career. This one was actually his career-best in terms of WAR (6.9) thanks to a positive mark on defense in addition to his work on offense. He hit .312/.420/.567 with 46 doubles, 29 homers, 106 RBIs and an uncharacteristically high 18 stolen bases, finishing fifth in the NL MVP voting.

1. Jeff Bagwell – 1994

Who else? Despite only playing in 110 games thanks to a season-ending injury sustained just before the season-ending strike, this was Bagwell’s highest single-season WAR total (8.2). He won the NL MVP award and hit a ridiculous .368/.451/.750 with 32 doubles, 39 homers, 116 RBIs and 15 stolen bases, and he won a Gold Glove for good measure. He led the majors in RBIs, OPS+ and slugging.