Most surprising Silver Slugger winner in Houston Astros history

Since 1980, the Silver Slugger Award has been handed out annually to the best hitters in the game. While there's not a specific metric used to measure whether or not a player is deserving of the award, the honor is typically bestowed on the best hitter as his position.

When it comes to the Houston Astros, the obvious names like Jose Altuve, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Bagwell come to mind. It's not surprising that players like George Springer, Alex Bregman, and Yordan Alvarez have won the award in years past.

It doubtful, however, that many Astros fans remember Carlos Lee's run to the Silver Slugger Award in 2007. Lee spent six seasons in Space City, and eclipsed 20 home runs on four different occasions. While 2007 was arguably Lee's best season in Houston, he was hardly deserving of a Silver Slugger Award given the competition he was up against that year.

Carlos Lee was the most surprising Silver Slugger winner in Houston Astros history

Lee ended the 2007 season having played all 162 games and posted a .303/.354/.528 slash line with 32 homer and 119 RBI. Lee was one of the three outfielders to take home the Silver Slugger in 2007, along with Matt Holliday (Colorado Rockies) and Carlos Beltran (New York Mets).

In 2007, the Astros were still in the National League, and though it was Barry Bonds' final season, the 12-time Silver Slugger Award-winner was not in the running — though one could make the argument that he should've been. Bonds ended his 2007 campaign with a .276/.480/.565 slash line, 28 home runs, and 66 RBI. Bonds, however played in just 126 games, which may have swayed the voters away from MLB's all-time home run leader.

But at least two other NL outfielders have a résumé that at least stood toe to toe with Lee in 2007, and were arguably even better. Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs (.299/.337/.560) finished the year with the same number of home runs (32) as Lee, and Cincinnati Reds slugger Adam Dunn (40) led all NL outfielders in the category.

There've been some surprising winners of this award over the years, but Lee's ability to leapfrog some of the competition en route to one of his two Silver Sluggers stands out as the most surprising in Astros history.