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Inside Baseball
Even during the Astros' miss of a season, Jeff Bagwell has been a tremendous hit By Stephen Cannella
Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell knows how it must have felt to be one of the musicians playing as the Titanic went down. It's tough to get excited about a virtuoso performance when your stage is as good as sunk. "Absolutely not," was Bagwell's answer last Friday when asked if he finds any satisfaction in his gaudy offensive numbers this season. "We're paid to win baseball games, and we didn't win enough to come close to the playoffs. As I look at it right now, there are 29 games left in a miserable season."
Bagwell's monster August -- he hit .380, smashed 12 homers, scored 31 runs and set a club record for RBIs in a month with 34 -- and an uptick in the play of the Astros, who went 16-12 in August, are two of the few silver linings in a cloudy season. Outfielder Moises Alou has returned after a year lost to injury and hit .367, righthander Scott Elarton (15-5) and outfielder Richard Hidalgo (33 home runs) have blossomed after promising sophomore seasons in 1999, second-year outfielder Lance Berkman had 17 homers, and first-year infielders Chris Truby (third base) and Julio Lugo (shortstop and second base) have been solid in every-day roles in the second half. "We went to Plan B for the season," says manager Larry Dierker. "We've played a lot of young guys and maybe accelerated their progress." The youth movement, necessitated by injuries to veteran third baseman Ken Caminiti and second baseman Craig Biggio, and the off-season departures of outfielder Carl Everett and lefthander Mike Hampton, are also frustrating for Bagwell -- and that frustration has begun to color his thinking about his future. "We've got every prospect we have up here, so I guess that's a positive," he says. "I want to see us get in the right direction to win." Thus will Bagwell, whose contract expires after the 2001 season, pay close attention to the Astros' off-season attempts to clean up this year's mess. He hints that though he wants to stay in Houston, he won't blindly sign an extension this winter. General manager Gerry Hunsicker says signing Bagwell will be on the "front burner" in the off-season. "I can think of no better way to show our fans and our other players the direction we're heading than by signing our franchise player," he says. "I know my fate will be decided this off-season," says Bagwell, "but I need to see management do some things and commit this team to winning. It won't be me signing first." Issue date: September 11, 2000
For more Inside Baseball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, September 6. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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