Houston Astros Position Review: First Base

Houston Astros Position Review: First Base

As Houston Astros fans, we have been spoiled at the first base position since the early 1990’s when future hall-of-famer Jeff Bagwell took over. Shortly after Bagwell’s retirement, Lance Berkman moved to first base and continued to produce for the Astros at first base. Since Lance Berkman was traded in 2010, the first base position for the Astros has been an absolute mess.

Astros fans endured 311 games from Brett Wallace which produced only 29 HRs, .242 BA, and 318 strikeouts. The future was looking bright however with one of the Astros top prospects, Jon Singleton, ready to make his way to the big league club. Lets take a look at how the Astros first basemen played this season.

Click here for our review on the catcher’s position

Jon Singleton

Singleton, acquired from the Phillies in 2011, came into the season as one of the top prospects despite his struggles last season. Singleton started out hot at AAA, to which many for calling for his promotion. On June 2nd, the Astros promoted Singleton to the MLB club and signed him to a long term deal. Singleton would then go on to play 95 games at first base for the Astros this season. Unfortunately things did not go as well as hoped. Singleton showed power but struggled with strikeouts and a low batting average. In those 95 games he compiled -0.3 oWAR and -0.9 d WAR. Hopefully next year Singleton will get his problems sorted out and stabilize the first base position for years to come.

2014 Stats: 95 G, .168 BA/.285 OBP/.335 SLG, 13 2B, 13 HR, 44 RBI, 50 BB/134 SO

Jesus Guzman

Guzman was acquired from the San Diego Padres with hopes of being a stop gap player until Singleton, though this did not go as planned. Guzman played in 52 games at first base and did not provide much to the squad. As a matter of fact, Guzman compiled -0.9 oWAR and -0.3 dWAR. Guzman had only 9 runs batted in on the season (165 AB). He’s no longer on the 40-man roster.

2014 Stats: 69 G, .188 BA/.272 OBP/.248 SLG, 4 2B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 19 BB/52 SO

Marc Krauss

First base was mainly handled by Singleton and Guzman but Krauss did factor in a bit. He appeared in 32 games at first base for the Astros. At times Krauss showed some good progress but still struggled to put it all together. Krauss put up -0.5 oWAR and -0.3 dWAR.

2014 Stats: 67 G, .194 BA/.279 OBP/.323 SLG, 6 2B, 6 HR, 21 RBI, 21 BB/54 SO

As you can probably tell, when all contributors at first base bat below .200, compile negative offensive and defensive WAR, it is not going to be a good season at the position. There is still a strong chance that Singleton will improve and reclaim his top form.

ON THE FARM (Minor Leagues)

Matt Duffy (AAA) – Duffy made nice strides this season splitting time between Corpus and Oklahoma City. In AAA he played in 55 games at first base and only committed two errors. In 87 AAA games Duffy hit .279 with 11 2B, 12 HR, 49 RBI as a 25 year old.

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Telvin Nash (AA) – Nash is a big power-hitting first baseman. This season in in only 84 games in Corpus he hit 22 HR, though it came with 112 strikeouts. At this point it appears Nash will repeat AA next season.

Conrad Gregor (AA) – Gregor was drafted in 4th round of the 2013 MLB draft and spent time with three different levels of minor league play. He started in Quad Cities where he hit .298 BA/.407 OBP but only 2 HRs. He then was promoted to Lancaster where he took off hitting .367 with 14 2B, 12 HR, 45 RBI in only 47 games. Afterwards he was promoted to Corpus where he finished the season hitting .239 with 3 HR, 13 RBI in 33 games. On the season he compiled .311 with 31 2B, 16 HR, 86 RBI, 68 BB/80 SO through the three levels.

A.J. Reed (A+) – Reed was drafted in the 2nd round in the 2014 MLB draft after winning many awards in college. He was assigned to Quad Cities where he hit .306 with 5 HR, 30 RBI in 34 games. He then got promoted to Lancaster and hit .272 with 7 HR, 24 RBI. It was a nice showing in Reed’s first taste of professional baseball, and with Singleton already on the MLB squad, Reed may be the best first base prospect in the Astros system.

Hopefully Singleton gets it figured out but if not, Houston has some players in the minor leagues waiting for a chance.

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