Last Updated on November 1, 2023 by Matt Musico
If we take a gander at single-season Astros RBI leaders, the top 10 is dominated by two dudes in particular. Not completely, though, because a couple of other players have snuck their way onto that particular list. But it certainly wasn’t easy.
At the conclusion of the 2023 season, the Astros have watched 37 different seasons of 100-plus RBI take place in franchise history. We’ll give you a more detailed look at the top 10 before listing out the remainder of the top 37 performances.
Single-Season Astros RBI Leaders Top 10
Lance Berkman
Lance Berkman “only” shows up three times in the Astros top-10 list when it comes to single-season RBI totals. But, he has the most important one of all: the top spot. Here are his three performances, each cresting over the 120-RBI mark:
- 136 RBI in 2006
- 128 RBI in 2002
- 126 RBI in 2001
In Berkman’s 12 seasons with the Astros, he drove in more than 100 runs on six occasions. After he broke Jeff Bagwell‘s single-season record in 2006, the switch-hitter followed it up with two more 100-RBI campaigns in 2007 and 2008. His production in ’06 was pretty eye-popping, though.
Berkman slashed .315/.420/.621 with 45 home runs, 136 RBI, and 95 runs scored in 646 plate appearances. He was selected to the All-Star Game that year and finished third in NL MVP voting. Berkman produced four months with 20-plus RBI, but he only did it in consecutive months once (June and July). Across 200 plate appearances during this period, he posted a 1.067 OPS with 14 homers and 48 RBI.
Jeff Bagwell
Only one measly RBI is keeping Jeff Bagwell from having a trifecta of powerful Astros records. He’s already the team’s single-season and career home run king. Coming in second here will have to be enough. You can say he made up for that by accounting for half of Houston’s top-10 RBI seasons in franchise history. Here are all those occurrences:
- 135 RBI in 1997
- 132 RBI in 2000
- 130 RBI in 2001
- 126 RBI in 1999
- 120 RBI in 1996
Bagwell finished each of these seasons with at least 120 RBI. He gets extra bonus points for racking up three years of 130-plus RBI, too. The Hall of Famer collected eight years of 100-plus RBI during his career. They all came between 1994 and 2003. The only times he didn’t reach the century mark? That’d be in an abbreviated 1995 season (87) and 2002 (98).
The first baseman’s distribution of RBI when looking at the number of outs in an inning during 1997 veers heavily toward one side. Bagwell drove in 32 runs with no outs, 59 with one out, and 44 with two outs. His OPS consistently went up when looking at these situations, too (.937 to .941 to 1.147).
Moises Alou: 124 RBI in 1998
Moises Alou suited up for three seasons with the Astros (1998, 1999, 2000). He racked up three straight 100 RBI campaigns during that time. It also included three consecutive years of 27-plus homers. Two of those occasions finished with at least 30.
Alou’s ’98 campaign was the second time in his career he achieved the trio of getting selected to the All-Star Game, finishing third in MVP voting, and also winning a Silver Slugger Award. His most fruitful two-month stretch in the RBI department came right at the beginning of the year. The outfielder was hitting .351/.437/.649 through his first 222 plate appearances. It also included 11 homers and 49 RBI.
Richard Hidalgo: 122 RBI in 2000
Richard Hidalgo‘s 2000 season was a true outlier in his MLB career. He posted a 1.028 OPS with 44 homers and 122 RBI. The closest he ever came to any of those numbers was in 2003 when he produced a .957 OPS with 28 homers and 88 RBI.
When looking at Hidalgo’s pre- and post-All-Star performance in 2000, they were nearly identical in the power department. The outfielder slugged 23 homers with 61 RBI in the first half and followed that up with 21 homers and 61 RBI in the second half. His best month of all was September/October. Over Hidalgo’s final 124 trips to the plate, he slashed .477/.532/.953 with 11 homers, 32 RBI, and 38 runs scored.
He also accumulated double-digit RBI against five different teams. His most was 17, which came against the Cubs and Cardinals.
Single-Season Astros RBI Leaders: The Rest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37FgkhdAT2w
As mentioned above, there have been 37 total 100-RBI seasons in Astros history. Here’s who accomplished the remainder of those 37 performances:
- Carlos Lee, 2007: 119 RBI
- Jeff Bagwell, 1994: 116
- Moises Alou, 2000: 1114
- Derek Bell, 1996: 113
- Alex Bregman, 2019: 112
- Kyle Tucker, 2023: 112
- Jeff Bagwell, 1998: 111
- Bob Watson, 1977: 110
- Derek Bell, 1998: 108
- Carl Everett, 1999: 108
- Moises Alou, 2001: 108
- Jimmy Wynn, 1967: 107
- Jeff Kent, 2004: 107
- Kyle Tucker, 2022: 107
- Lance Berkman, 2004 and 2008: 106
- Lee May, 1973: 105
- Yuli Gurriel, 2019: 104
- Yordan Alvarez, 2021: 104
- Alex Bregman, 2018: 103
- Cesar Cedeno, 1974: 102
- Bob Watson, 1976: 102
- Lance Berkman, 2007: 102
- Carlos Lee, 2009: 102
- Glenn Davis, 1986: 101
- Morgan Ensberg, 2005: 101
- Jeff Bagwell, 2003: 100
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