Houston Astros: Top 30 players in franchise history

The Houston Astros have existed as a franchise for a very long time. They’ve also had countless great players don the uniform, here are the best to do it.

The Houston Astros have been a franchise for a pretty long time, not as long as other historic franchises but 56 years and counting is still something. The franchise began in 1962 when Houston was awarded an expansion team. Owners Craig F. Cullinan Jr. and Roy Hofheinz named the team the Colt 45s.

However, that didn’t last too terribly long and the franchise switched its name from the Colt 45s to the Astros in 1965. As the Colt 45s, the team struggled in three seasons going 196 – 288. After switching to the Astros, the team has gone 4,298 – 4,323. Overall, that is a 4,494 – 4,611 record for the Houston franchise.

As a whole, the Houston franchise is 117 games below .500. At their pace the past couple of seasons, it’ll take about three seasons to get above .500, maybe four. However, purely looking at the ‘Astros’ win-loss, the team is only 25 games below .500. So, if the Astros win at least 94 games in 2019, they’ll get above .500 for franchise history.

So, it’s obvious that the Houston Astros are not some dynastic franchise that has been good forever. It’s obvious that Houston isn’t a mecca for baseball that players feel like they have to play for. However, this doesn’t mean Houston hasn’t sported countless good teams and fielded an innumerable amount of great players.

There have been several Hall of Famers who have donned a Houston Astros uniform. There has been an even larger number of very, very good players to play ball in Space City. So, let’s take a look at the best players to ever take the diamond for the Astros.