Hall of Stats: SABR's The National Pastime: The Houston Astros Hall of Stats

SABR's The National Pastime: The Houston Astros Hall of Stats

Aug 1, 2014 by Adam Darowski

A couple weeks ago, this arrived in the mail:

"The National Pastime," an annual @SABR publication, just arrived. Well looky who's inside… pic.twitter.com/GtBPPQZ2WU
— Adam Darowski (@baseballtwit) July 19, 2014

My submission for SABR’s annual The National Pastime publication was accepted, printed, and handed out to all attendees of SABR44 (currently underway in Houston). The issue is Houston-themed and my all-too-predictable submission is titled “The Houston Astros Hall of Stats.”

Here’s a quick snippet:

About half of all Major League clubs maintain their own Hall of Fame. The Houston Astros are one of several teams that don’t. The franchise is relatively young, debuting as the Colt 45’s during the National League’s first expansion in 1962. A half-century is certainly long enough to warrant a Hall of Fame. Several teams younger than the Astros (such as the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners) already have their own Hall of Fame.

If the Astros were to establish their own Hall of Fame, what would it look like? 809 players have appeared in at least game for Houston, ranging from Chris Tremie (who caught a single inning but never batted) to Craig Biggio (who batted 12,504 times as an Astro). Of course, an Astros Hall of Fame would start with greats like Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Nolan Ryan. But where would it go from there? There are many different reasons a player could be considered a Hall of Famer, but I’m going to focus on one—value.

You’ll have to pick up the issue to read the rest. I will tell you the 27 players in the Houston Astros Hall of Stats, though (they are simply the top 27 by Hall Rating):

Thank you to editor Cecilia Tan for running a smooth operation and giving me the opportunity to take part in this excellent publication.

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