Yes I agree. There will never be a time in Astro history like we are going through now. After decades of futility I am so grateful to witness was we are seeing. My mom and dad unfortunately, both huge Astro fans, did not live long enough to see this. My time as an Astro fan goes back to the the late 60's. I have seen all the other great Astro teams over the years. Although I have seen JR Richard, Nolan Ryan, Larry Dierker, Don Wilson, among others pitch and witnessed the Toy Cannon, Cesar Cedeno, Bob Watson, Jose Cruz and others perform, nothing matches what we are seeing now. Who knows how long this will last but for now it is nice to take a deep breath and take it all in and enjoy the moment.
No it isn't. He may have similar hardware, but Bagwell's career is still significantly ahead of him. It's ahead of most people, he was a monster. I don't like to overstate WAR, but Bagwell has more than double Altuve's right now. As for the playoffs, Bagwell was really good in 01 and 04, unfortunately those late 90's failures are all anybody remembers. I'm not gonna argue with people that put Altuve ahead of him because of postseason performance (Altuve has been that damn good), but regular season is still a no contest. Altuve certainly could match him there also in time, I certainly hope he does.
Bagwell was a much better regular season player (he had 20 more war in first 9 season), but its not even close in the playoffs. Altuve has a 900 ops vs 685 for Bagwell.
I love Biggio and Bagwell, especially Bags. Let me make that clear. But Biggio, he is one of those dudes who feasted on MLB average to below average MLB pitching for two decades and is a hall of famer because of that excellence, consistency and durability. But he couldn't do it against the elite pitchers in the playoffs. Comparing him to Altuve is like comparing the Minnesota Twins to these Astros. Minny made a living in the reg season abusing the average and bad teams. They folded in the playoffs. Altuve is the Astros.
Did you see both Harden and Westbrook standing in the aisle right in front of home plate late night? They saw what you wanted them to see.
Not sure what you mean about significantly better. Both have won MVP's. Bags never won a battling title. Altuve has 3. Don't get me wrong though, I love Bags.
Biggio will always have a place in my heart and those Killer B teams deserve a prominent spot in Houston Sports history. That said there isn't much of a debate that Altuve is best Astros position player and a good argument could be made for the best Astro up there even including Nolan Ryan and Justin Verlander. I know in sports we always want to compare and rank things but I'm going to enjoy our history while celebrating our present.
And just a handful of years ago, there was some BBS support in favor of getting rid of Jose to make room for Kemp...ahhhhhh, the good old days
Altuve is our mount rushmore. There are little statues below him for the other Astros. And then there are peasants below that. And then the Yankees in depths so dark and damp you cannot even fathom, but they can still see Altuve's presence from wherever they may be scattered.
This current thread makes this old one really fun to read in retrospect... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/jose-altuve.243548/
Biggio has learned the fine art of how to look at the Astro Strip Dancer without giving it away to his wife. He's a master at his craft.