Astros MVPs With 30 Stolen Bases

Two Astros players have piled up 30 stolen bases and 30 home runs in a single season.

• Carlos Beltran - 2004
• Jeff Bagwell - 1999
• Jeff Bagwell -1997

Since the inception of Major League Baseball, only 43 players have achieved the rare feat of scoring 30 home runs and 30 base steals in a season. Any player who accomplishes that feat becomes a 30–30 club member.

St; Louis Brown left midfielder Ken Williams was the first to achieve membership, doing 30-30, a hundred years ago in 1922.

For 34 years, Williams stood as the only person in the club until Willie Mays became the second member by achieving back-to-back 30–30 seasons in 1956 and 1957.

The Houston Astros fans had to wait till 1997 to witness one of their players be a member of the 30-30 club. Jeff Bagwell hit 43 home runs that season, alongside 31 stolen bases.

Bagwell, known for being faster and better at running bases, became the first full-time baseman ever to be part of the 30-30 club. 

With a batting average of .286 and 109 runs scored that season, he ranked second in the league for hitting 43 home runs and 135 RBI, achieving a career-high in RBI. 

Then in 1999, the Boston, Massachusetts, native also had a batting average of .304 and hit 42 home runs. On top of that, he stole 30 bases, making it his second season with 30 or more home runs and stolen bases. 

Jeff became only the second player, along with Barry Bonds, to reach the 40 home runs and 30 stolen bases milestone twice in MLB history. Besides, Bagwell led the major leagues in runs scored with 143, bases on balls with 149, and games played with 162 that season.

Meanwhile, in 2004, Carlos Beltran, a former Puerto Rican outfielder and one of the richest baseball players, also joined the 30–30 club.

Carlos stands out as one of a select few players who have reached 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Moreover, his prowess as a switch hitter further distinguishes him, as he became just the fourth player to accomplish the remarkable milestone of 400 home runs.

With a success rate of 88.3%, he has the highest record of stealing bases among major league players with over 300 career attempts.

In the 2003-04 season, Beltran smacked an impressive 38 home runs, stole 42 bases, and drove in 104 runs, with a batting average of .267 in 159 games.

Astros stolen base leaders are:

• Cesar Cedeno
• Jose Cruz
• Jose Altuve
• Craig Biggio
• Jeff Bagwell
• Joe Morgan
• Michael Bourn
• Enos Cabell
• Bill Doran

Cesar Cedeno is regarded as one of the greatest players ever to don the Astros uniform. During his 12 seasons with Houston, Cesar became the player with the highest number of stolen bases in the team's history, with an incredible total of 487 stolen bases.

Signed by Houston as an amateur free agent in 1967, Cedeno showed early signs of brilliance. He was 19 when he made an MLB debut and batted an average of .310 in his rookie year.

According to Statmuse, in his 12 seasons with Astros, Cedeno played 1512 games and hit 163 HR with a batting average of .289 and 778 RBI.

Another excellent Astors stealer is Jeff Bagwell, who had a fantastic career with the team. He hit the most home runs in the team's history, a whopping 449.

Bagwell remains the sole payer to have had six consecutive seasons from 1996 to 2001, where he hit at least 30 HRs, drove in 100 runs, scored 100 runs, and walked 100 times.

Besides, Bagwell is part of an elite group of only twelve players in history who hit 400 or more home runs and had an on-base percentage of .400 or higher. He is the only first baseman who achieved both 200 stolen bases and 400 home runs.

In recognition of his outstanding career, Bagwell was recognized with the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

Similarly, a seven-time MLB All-Star, Craig Biggio, has Houston's second most stolen bases. Biggio played his whole career with the Astros for two decades, appearing in over 2800 matches and gathering 414 steals.

Craig's performance in the league was equally impressive in other aspects, with an average batting score of .281, 3,060 hits, and 291 home runs. He has been the recipient of the Gold Glove Award on four separate occasions and was recognized as the NL's stolen base leader in 1994.

After Biggio, Jose Cruz occupies third place with 288 stolen bases. The 2019 Houston Astros Hall of Famer, Cruz spent 12 years with the club earning two All-Star selections in 1980 and 1985.

Jose Cruz established himself as a reliable base stealer throughout his career, achieving over 30 stolen bases in five seasons, including a personal best of 44 steals in 1977.

Gerald Young set the record for the most Astros stolen bases in a single season with 65 steals in 1988 which remains unbeaten to this day.

Traded by the New York Mets to the Astros in September 1984, for third baseman Ray Knight, Young made his major league debut with them on July 8, 1987.

The following year in 1988, Gerald Young had his most successful season in the major leagues, finishing 2nd in the NL with 65 steals and the most by any Houston player ever.

Cesar Cedeno, the all-time high bases stealer for Astros, remarkably has five out of the top ten one-season best records for stolen bases. His most stolen bases in a single MLB campaign were recorded in 1977, the club's highest at that time.

Cedeno broke the record for the first time in 1972 with 55 steals and continued to break his own stolen base record every year until 1977.

In 1973, he outscored his previous year's benchmark of 55 by making 56 that season. The following year, in 1974, Cedeno made another history feat with 57 steals in a single season.

Then in 1976, the Dominican international reached 58 in a single season which he again surpassed in the subsequent season with 61 steals. He became the first-ever Astros player to record 60+ stolen bases in one season.

Besides, Eric Yelding holds the catalog for the second-most steals in a campaign, with one below Gerald Young at 64, which he gathered in 1990. Yelding had a 5-year career in MLB, during which he stole 89 bases, averaging 18 stolen bases per season.

Michael Bourn matched the 61 stolen bases in a season record of Cedeno in 2009. Bourn appeared in 541 games in his 11 years playing in the Major League, during which he had an overall tally of 193 steals and 11 home runs.

Moreover, Jose Altuve, the current player with the most stolen bases, also makes the top ten list with the 56 steals he recorded in 2014.

Lastly, the 1990 World Series champion with the Cincinnati Reds, Billy Hatcher, had 53 stolen bases in 1987. Hatcher joined Houston in 1986 and played as a starting left fielder for three seasons at the team.