Former Astros All-Star first baseman Jeff Bagwell on Sunday will become part of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017.
He will be inducted along with Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriquez. He will be the second player to go into the Hall as a member of the Houston Astros, joining former teammate Craig Biggio, who was inducted in 2015.
Sunday’s ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. CT at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. Admission to the ceremony is free. The ceremony will be broadcast live on MLB Network and will be shown via webcast at www.baseballhall.org. More than 50 Hall of Famers are scheduled to return to Cooperstown to honor the Class of 2017, which also includes executives John Schuerholz and Bud Selig.
Bagwell earned his place in baseball history in what in what was his seventh season on the ballot.
During his 15-year career, all spent with the Astros, Jeff Bagwell compiled a .297 batting average with 449 home runs and 1,529 RBI while posting a .408 on-base percentage and a .540 slugging percentage. He is the Houston franchise leader in career home runs, RBI, batting average and walks, and ranks second in club history in games, runs, hits, doubles, total bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
His .948 career OPS ranks 10th all-time among right-handed hitters and 20th all-time among all hitters. Also, notably, Bagwell played nine of his 15 seasons in the pitcher-friendly Astrodome.
He remains the only first baseman in NL history to reach the 30-30 club in home runs and stolen bases in a single season, which he did twice in his career. He also was a Gold Glove winner and currently ranks third all-time in career assists as a first baseman with 1,704.
In 1994, Bagwell became just the third player in history to win the NL Most Valuable Player Award by a unanimous vote after hitting .368 with 39 home runs, 116 RBI, a .750 slugging percentage, .451 on-base percentage and a career-high 1.201 OPS in just 110 games. Bagwell was a four-time All-Star, earned three Silver Slugger Awards, a Rawlings Gold Glove Award and was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1991.
On Aug. 31, 1990, the Astros acquired a little-known, minor league third baseman named Jeff Bagwell from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for reliever Larry Andersen. At the time, most likely no one in baseball could have known that this trade would go down as one of the most famous deals in Major League history.
In spring training of 1991, the Astros moved Bagwell from third base to first base. Bagwell would make the club out of camp and then go on to earn NL Rookie of the Year honors. By 1994, he would become the first player in franchise history to be named Most Valuable Player. The rest is history.
Here is more on Bagwell, by the numbers:
**.408 career on-base percentage ranks T-14th all-time among right-handed hitters and 10th all-time among first basemen (4th among RHH first basemen).
**One of just 11 players in baseball history to hit at least 400 home runs while compiling a .408-or-higher on-base percentage.
**Only player in history to record 30 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 runs scored and 100 walks in six consecutive seasons (1996-2001).
**One of 25 players in Major League history to win both the Rookie of the Year (1991) and Most Valuable Player (1994) awards.
**Only first baseman in ML history and one of 13 players all-time to reach 400 home runs and 200 stolen bases.
**One of six players in history to collect 30 home runs, 100 RBI and 100 runs scored in six consecutive seasons (1996-2001). Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are the others.
**.297 career average ranks 19th all-time among players with 400 home runs, and 11th all-time among right-handed hitters with 400 home runs.
**Registered an OPS above 1.000 in five different seasons.
**Played 162 games in a season four times in his career; played 156 or more games in a season nine times.
**Led NL first basemen in assists five times.
**Four-time All-Star.
**Three Silver Slugger Awards.
**Using Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement metric, Bagwell ranks ahead of many Hall of Famers with his 79.6 Wins Above Replacement for his career (ranks 35th all-time among all players). An average Hall of Fame first baseman has a 57.6 WAR.
**Bagwell rates as a 59 on Bill James’ Hall of Fame Standards, which determines how well a player’s career statistics match up to the typical standards of a Hall of Famer. A score of 50 represents the career of an average Hall of Fame hitter.