Astros Speak about Hall of Fame and Lockout at TRISTAR

Past and present Astros talked about the latest Hall of Fame ballot including Billy Wagner and Major League Baseball’s lockout.

This past weekend, former and current Houston Astros partook in the TRISTAR festivities in Houston. Of the current players, a handful told reporters their opinions on the ongoing Major League Baseball lockout.

Closer Ryan Pressly informed reporters that MLBPA representative Lance McCullers Jr. and member of the Union’s subcommittee Jason Castro were keeping the Astros players “abreast” on lockout information.

"“They can lift the lockout whenever they want,” Pressly said. “We want to play. That’s my personal opinion. It’s obviously gonna be worrisome. Fans want to see us play and we want to be out there. We got to hold our ground and do what we need to do.”"

They were seeking input in a group chat of 40-man roster players, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reported.

Of the Hall of Famers present, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio both believe Billy Wagner deserves to be a Hall of Famer, as he trends in the right direction following each year’s ballot.

Wagner agrees with his trajectory but doesn’t believe he will receive 75 percent of the votes before his final year on the ballot. For his seventh year on the ballot, he received 51 percent of the vote.

"“It’s not like I haven’t practiced that Hall of Fame speech. It may not happen, but hopefully if I get there I’ll have that speech right,” Wagner told the media. “It’s not (about) numbers. They’re not looking at my numbers. My numbers are way better than what’s in there right now.”"

The former closer does agree with the group of writers that have not voted for alleged performance enhancing drugs users, as he thinks players that used PEDs don’t belong in the Hall.

Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Larry Dierker, Shane Reynolds, Lance Berkman and Bob Aspromonte were among the remainder former Houston baseball players in attendance.

Berkman, who is the head coach of Houston Baptist, told MLB’s Brian McTaggart two weeks ago that he is “hog heaven” about the opportunity.