Former Astros Chances at Entering Hall of Fame

The Houston Astros currently only have two players wearing an “H” on their hat in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. That in all likelihood won’t be changing with this year’s inductees.

But there are plenty of former Astros on this year’s ballot, some of whom have a very legitimate shot to get in if not this year, than in the coming years.

The former Astros on the Hall of Fame ballot are the following in order of most percentage of votes to least:

1. Curt Schilling 71.1 percent (Final year on ballot)
2. Roger Clemens 61.6 percent (Final year on ballot)
3. Billy Wagner 46.4 percent (Sixth year on ballot)
4. Jeff Kent 32.4 percent (Eighth year on ballot)
5. Andy Pettitte 13.7 percent (Third year on ballot)
6. Bobby Abreu 8.7 percent (Second year on ballot)

For those unaware of the rules, a player needs 75 percent of the votes submitted by the Baseball Writers Association of America within 10 years since they were active or they are removed from the ballot. Here are the former Astros still on the ballot.

Curt Schilling

As of now, Curt Schilling has the best chance of getting in needing a four percent bump to make it.  His time with the Astros was limited to one season as a relief pitcher before being traded straight up to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jason Grimsley.

As much as Astros fans like to crow about fleecing Boston for Jeff Bagwell, this one is arguably the worst the team has ever been on the receiving end of. After that trade, Schilling was a six-time All-Star and had three top two finishes in the Cy Young race.

His most famous game of course is game six of the 2004 ALCS (AKA-The Bloody Sock game) where Schilling had his ankle tendon sutured and the blood from the stitches pushed up against his sock making for an added level of drama in the Red Sox historic 3-0 comeback on their way to a championship.

He’s best known as an Arizona Diamondback where he had his most dominant years and could have had a Cy Young if not for his teammate Randy Johnson. For a frame of reference for younger Astro fans, they were the Justin Verlander Gerrit Cole tag team of their day, finishing two years in a row as the one and two vote getters for Cy Young in 2001 and 2002.

Schilling would certainly go in as a Diamondback and could already be in the hall, but some would say the hesitance to let Schilling in has more to do with temperament than talent considering some of his controversial off-field comments.

It’ll be close but I think Schilling just gets in on his final year.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens would have been a first ballot selection were it not for his association with steroids. He pitched for the Astros in what were the franchise’s best years until their recent five year run of success, pitching for three seasons (2004-2006) that included two League Championship Series trips and one World Series appearance.

In his three years with the Astros, Clemens was an all-star twice, won an ERA title in 2005 and won his seventh and final Cy Young award in 2004. Considering it’s his final year on the ballot, a 14 point bump seems unlikely and he will officially not be in the hall of fame after this year barring a gargantuan change of heart by the voters.

His numbers remain mind-boggling to this day though. Seven Cy Young awards, seven ERA titles, eleven all-star selections, an MVP award and he’s third all-time in strikeouts behind only Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. Regardless of whether you think he deserves to be in the hall of not, the man could pitch.

Billy Wagner

Known as “Billy the Kid” during his major league tenure for firing 100 mph bullets down the heart of the plate, Billy Wagner is very deserving of a spot and has time to make the jump to 75 percent. He is one of the most dominant closers of all-time and unlike everyone else on this list is most associated for his time with the Astros, having pitched for the team from 1995-2003.

Baseball-Reference compares him most to Aroldis Chapman which makes sense as they’re both hard throwing lefties with fastball-slider combos. It’s hard to remember considering most people associate 90’s-2000’s relief pitching with Mariano Rivera’s cutter or Trevor Hoffman’s changeup, but Wagner had 100 MPH heat with a devastating slider coming from the left side. Essentially he was Chapman before Chapman.

Wagner had six All-Star selections in his career and is sixth all-time in saves. He won’t be getting in this year but if he does get in eventually, it will most likely be as an Astro giving the team a third hall of famer.

Jeff Kent

Jeff Kent most likely won’t be getting into the hall of fame sitting at 32 percent with only two years to go. Which is kind of crazy considering he is the all-time home run leader at his position of second base.

He has 377 home runs which is a pretty good number for any player at any position. Oftentimes voters take into account the position the player played and their numbers compared to others at the same position both across generations and within their era.

And within Jeff Kent’s era there was a nine year stretch where he was the best second baseman in baseball. From 1997-2005, he averaged 28 homers and 110 RBI from a position that up until that point was more known as a spot you get contact and speed from rather than power. During that stretch, he had five All-Star selections and an MVP award.

His time spent with the Astros was in 2003 and 2004, forcing Craig Biggio to move positions once again so he could play second base while Biggio adjusted to the outfield.

Kent is responsible for creating one of our favorite Astro post season moments (back when they were few and far between) in the 2004 NLCS hitting a game winning walk off home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth in game five to bring the Astros within one game of their first World Series appearance.

All Astro fans will remember him running towards home plate with his finger up saying “One more, one more” as in how many wins they needed to win the NL pennant. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but on the flip side it is nice Cardinals fans didn’t feel the need to fabricate a story about Jeff Kent wearing a buzzer to compensate for their loss. You take the good with the bad.

Bobby Abreu

Consistency is once again the name of the game with our final former Astro, Bobby Abreu. Only in his second year on the ballot he still has time for people to make the case for him.

But it’s going to be a tough case to make with only two all-star appearances and never finishing higher than 12th in MVP voting.

Abreu was an exciting rookie when he first came into the big leagues as an Astro as he was considered to be a five tool player. He could hit for contact, for power, he could steal bases and had a canon for an arm you could put out in right field.

Astros’ fans were furious when he was not protected during the 1997 expansion draft leading to the Tampa Bay Rays taking and subsequently trading him to where he would be best known as a major leaguer, Philadelphia.

He was thought to have hall of fame potential but had more of a Hunter Pence type career. You knew you could count on him for roughly 20 homers and 100 RBIs on his good years. He spent his best years as a Phillie, but Abreu broke into the big leagues with the Astros.

That said, his hall of fame chances as it stands, don’t seem great. Time will tell.