The End of an Era in Houston?

Jeff Bagwell Career--similar players

It's kind of funny that we're even talking about whether or not Bagwell goes in, but at a time when he should be putting the frosting on the cake, he is basically shutting down.  

Look at his tammate Craig Biggio, who is more and more solid as a Hall of Famer every day--and I know coz they tell me every night, as he passes another guy on the all-time list in hits, doubles, steals, or leadoff homers.  No-one would tell you that Biggio is as good as he was, but he still compares pretty favorably with the average player at his position (if you are willing to call that position second base).  

Quite frankly, Bagwell does not.  It would be much simpler if Bagwell could simply cap his career with four graceful, fade into the sunset years of 140 hits and 30 homers, so that he might end up with nearly 3000 hits and over 550 homers.  Then you can forgive, that hey, he wasn't at the top at the end, but look at the milestones.  

The way it's gonna play out, of course, he leaves as an average player for his position, and shy of the milestones that everyone looks at.  

The more and more I think about it, the more I think Bagwell is yielding his "greatest player in Houston history" title to Biggio.  But I still do not think that he has yielded his Hall of Fame credentials.  

I don't know anything about VORP or Borgs or  Eqa or any of that jazz, but I do know that Dizzy Dean got hurt, and that Sandy Koufax got hurt, and in a different sport, Gayle Sayers got hurt, and no-one ever had any doubts about where those players and their skillsets belonged.  

During the '90's, playing in a pitcher's park, Bagwell was consistently excellent.  After winning the NL Rookie of the Year, and having a credible sophomore season, Bagwell was at 140 OPS+ or above for the next NINE seasons.  His numbers during the 1994 NL MVP year look as if they were generated during a 162-game season instead of during a severely strike-curtailed one.  

People remember 1994, but they don't remember 1999, when all Bagwell did was lead the league in runs and walks and games and power/speed number and times on base.

During those years, he always ran better than other sluggers, and played defense better than them, too.  I haven't been watching for fifty years or anything, but the two best defensive first basemen I have ever seen are Jeff Bagwell and Derrick Lee.  And Bagwell in his prime probably turned the 3-6-3, and reached for the throw in the dirt better than Lee does now, in his prime.

Bagwell has been denied the opportunity to age gracefully; it has been a pretty sharp slide these last two years.  But anyone who saw him play in the nineties, and understands the situation, would feel as I do:  that the man needs to be in the Hall.