Houston Astros: Top 30 players in franchise history

30. Mike Hampton, P, 1994 – 1999, 2009

There may be a lot of personal bias here, but hey, it’s my list. I loved watching Mike Hampton play baseball while I was growing up. He held an intimidating presence on the mound and was an incredibly solid pitcher for the Houston Astros.

He had a 3.59 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and 767 strikeouts across 1,138 innings, though, those numbers look even better if you exclude his one year return to Houston in 2009. His 1999 season was his best as he was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger, and was second in Cy Young voting. I guess Y2K is a heck of a motivator.

However, one of my favorite parts about Hampton was his bat. The dude had a phenomenal approach to the plate, he swatted a lot of homers in his career to boot. The majority of those bombs didn’t come as a member of the Astros but his bat was still a weapon in Houston.

Hampton will never go down as one of the greatest but he was a ton of fun to watch. In the same game, he could shutout an opponent and launch a home run. You just never knew what glimpse of greatness you would see when he took the field.