Astros legend Jeff Bagwell was not among those elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, but he's building momentum toward achieving that goal in 2017. Here are Bagwell's ballot percentages have tracked in his six years of BBWAA eligibility (75 percent needed for election) ...
2011: 41.7 percent
2012: 56.0 percent
2013: 59.6 percent
2014: 54.3 percent
2015: 55.7 percent
2016: 71.6 percent
As you can see, Bagwell with this year's round of voting made up the ground he lost in 2014 and then some. That's a substantial leap forward for him in one year, and in fact he came up just 15 votes shy of making it this year. Recent trends strongly suggest that Bagwell will indeed get those missing votes next year.
On the merits, he's an obvious Hall of Famer. Across parts of 15 big-league seasons in Houston, Bagwell batted .297/.408/.540 with 449 home runs; 488 doubles; 2,314 hits; 1,529 RBI; 1,517 runs; 1,401 walks, and 202 stolen bases. Bagwell wound up ranked in the top 100 all-time in OPS+ (36th), runs scored (64th), RBI (49th), total bases (72nd), doubles (72nd), home runs (38th), walks (28th), extra-base hits (46th), times on base (58th), sac flies (26th), defensive games as a first baseman (11th), double plays turned as a first baseman (12th), and assist as a first baseman (third).
In 2017, Bagwell figures to get his due.
