Jeff Bagwell Stats : Forgotten Great Seasons Of A Forgotten Legend
Jeff Bagwell Stats : Forgotten Great Seasons Of A Forgotten Legend. Ok, elephant in the room. Jeff Bagwell is by far my favorite baseball player ever (behind the great Pete Orr of course). With that being said, let’s move on.
Jeff Bagwell is such an interesting player to talk about. While having an obvious hall of fame career, he put together his resume with very little attention. His peak was no doubt his MVP 1994 strike season when he and Frank Thomas became first hitters in 50 years to produce an OPS of 1.200 or higher.
However, we’re going to talk about 1997. Why? Because Bagwell produced a season that no one in baseball history has ever had.
In 97, Houston was still working on their farm system (which included the newly drafted Lance Berkman). But Bagwell and lifetime teammate Craig Biggio clearly didn’t mind their current crew.
We’ve already discussed Biggio’s success that year. If any of you looked for a reason why he scored so many runs that year, pointing to Bagwell would be the perfect reason.
Education – Rebellion Research
Bags had a less than stellar avg of .286. But despite this, he still reached base at a .425 rate and POUNDED the ball with a .592 slugging.
To add on to his success he compiled his 2nd career 30/30 season, still the only first baseman to even have a 30/30 season.
But this is not what’s most impressive of that season. In 1997, Jeff Bagwell became the first player in the history of baseball to hit 40 home runs, hit 30 doubles, steal 30 bases, score 100 times, drive in 100 runs and draw 100 walks in a single season.
How about that for a complete season?
This feat has been accomplished only once more since then. By Jeff Bagwell. Again. In 1999. He’s the only player to do this and he did it twice.
While I won’t argue his numbers against Larry Walker that year, I felt that this season definitely deserved some praise. Well done Bags!
Houston Astros Senior Director of Player Evaluation & Director of Research Dr. Ehsan Bokhari
