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Who are the only Astros players to hit .300 and slug .500 in a single season?
The Astros have a few guys that are having banner offensive seasons, but a couple could join a very exclusive club.
While the Houston Astros are going into the final day of the regular season unsure if they will win the AL West, they were able to finally clinch a playoff spot last night thanks to a big time performance from Justin Verlander and the Houston bullpen. For most of the season, however, it has been the Astros' top 5 offense in baseball that has done a lot of the heavy lifting.
This isn't all that surprising when you look at the players in the Astros' lineup. Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Jose Altuve, Chas McCormick, and Yainer Diaz are all premium offensive players at their positions and all of them sport wRC+ of 123 or higher in 2023. However, Jose Altuve would have been able to join a pretty exclusive club in franchise history if he hadn't missed so much time due to injuries this season by putting up a .300 batting average and slugging .500.
Here are the Houston Astros that have hit .300 and slugged .500 in a single season
The rules here are simple: to qualify for this list, a player must have had a .300 batting average and slugged .500 in the same season and also played enough in that season to qualify for the batting title. The idea here is to highlight guys that had really well-rounded seasons at a high level without getting too caught up in the weeds while looking at things like wRC+, OPS, etc. Neither of these measures are perfect, but they do tell us a good bit about how a guy played in a given season.
Without further delay, here are the Astros players in franchise history that have hit .300 and slugged .500 in a single season.
Jeff Bagwell - 6 times
Not an ounce of surprise here as Jeff Bagwell is not only one of the better hitters in Astros history, but also one of the best to ever play the game period. Bagwell accomplished .300/.500 in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1998-2000. His long track record of being a beast at the plate was more than sufficient to get him elected to Cooperstown in 2017, although it look way to long for him to get in in the first place.
Lance Berkman - 4 times
Another no-brainer inclusion in Lance Berkman who a lot of younger fans may not realize just how good he was during his prime. Berkman pulled this feat off in 2001, 2004, 2006, and 2008 in route to multiple top 5 MVP finishes during his time with Houston. Of note, he also hit .300 and slugged .500 in 2011, but that was when he was with the Cardinals and doesn't count here as a result.
Moises Alou - 3 times
Most wouldn't have pegged Moises Alou as a guy that pulled .300 and .500 off in all three seasons he played for the Astros, but he absolutely did so in 1998, 2000, and 2001. Alou actually had a really good shot at four such seasons in a row when you look at his track record before and after his tenure with Houston, but he tore his ACL before the 1999 season and was out the entire year.
Jose Altuve - 3 times
We return to another guy that is hardly surprising as Altuve is the guy that spawned this look in the first place and as it turns out, he has pulled the feat off three other times in his career already in 2016, 2017, and 2022. Given how well he has played this season, it wouldn't be a shock at all if he added another such season next year in the final year of his contract with Houston.
Craig Biggio - 2 times
It isn't that surprising to see Craig Biggio on this list, but it is a little weird that he only managed to do so in 1997 and 1998. However, a closer look at his career numbers shows that the slugging side of things is what gave him trouble as those two seasons were the only seasons where he slugged .500 despite all those extra-base hits he racked up. He did get pretty close a few other times, though.
Cesar Cedeno - 2 times
We have to go back in time a bit for the next name on this list in Cesar Cedeno who managed to hit .300 and slug .500 in back-to-back seasons in 1972 and 1973. Cesar was an absolute stud during his time with the Astros as not only did he hit for average and a bit of power, but he was an absolute menace on the basepaths with 487 stolen bases in his 12 seasons with the Astros. His Hall of Fame case is also better than you may think.
Richard Hidalgo - 2 times
In the early 2000's, Richard Hildalgo's production was often overshadowed with guys like Biggio, Bagwell, and Berman around. However, he more than held his own during his time with the Astros and pulled this feat off twice in 2000 and 2003. He wasn't the most consistent guy at the plate, but he was better than many remember him being.
Yordan Alvarez
Yordan Alvarez is the start of the one-timers part of this list as he managed to hit .306 while slugging .613 just last season. Yordan is basically a mortal lock to slug .500 or better every season he plays, but he was also pretty close to hitting .300 this year as he sits at .293 in 488 plate appearances this season. If he didn't get hurt, it wouldn't have been shocking to see him do it in back to back seasons.
Carlos Lee
Next up, we have Carlos Lee who hit .303 and slugged .528 back in 2007. Lee was famously difficult to strike out as he never posted more than 63 strikeouts in a season while he was playing in Houston. Another guy that was better than many gave him credit for, Lee actually missed on a second .300/.500 season because an injury kept him from qualifying for the batting title in 2008.
Carl Everett
Oh, Carl Everett....where to start here. The good news is that Everett did put up a fantastic season in 1999 with a .325/.398/.571 line. The bad news is Everett was a notorious clubhouse cancer in his career and got passed around the league until he ran out of teams willing to deal with his very abrasive personality and his incessant peddling of conspiracy theories such as his belief that dinosaurs never existed.
Marwin Gonzalez
Marwin Gonzalez is the next man up as he hit .303 and slugged .530 back in 2017. Gonzalez appeared to be an analytics-forward organization's dream as not only was he productive at the plate, but he could play all over the field defensively. Unfortunately, his numbers dropped off a bunch after that 2017 season and he bounced around the league for a few years after he left Houston.
Michael Brantley
Finally, we come to Michael Brantley who pulled off a .300/.500 season in 2019. While this season hasn't gone to plan at all as Brantley rehabbed from shoulder surgery, there is no denying how important he has been to the Astros' offense since he joined the club back in 2019. It is a little surprisng that he only pulled this off once, but he just hasn't put up the slugging numbers very much in his career.
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