Considering Joe Morgan, and His Entry into the Hall as a Red

No, I'm not gonna defend The Trade. But in my notes, I was suggesting that maybe Joe should've been wearing an Astros cap in the Hall, as, after all, he did play more years for the Astros than he did for anyone else.

But a quick peak below shows that if Morgan had continued playing for the Astros, he probably wouldn't have MADE the Hall of Fame.

1968 Topps # 364 1970 Kellogg's # 72

Joe Morgan As an Astro, and Elsewhere
  Yrs Games AB     R   H   2B   3B
With Astros     10 1032 3729   597   972 153   63
Overall    22 2649 9277 1650 2517 449   96
%age as Astro 45.5%   39.0%   40.2%   36.2%   38.6%   34.1%   65.6%  

    HR   RBI   BB   SO BA OBP SLG
With Astros     72   327   678   415 .261 .374 .393
Overall   268 1133 1865 1015 .271 .392 .427
%age as Astro26.9%   28.9%   36.4%   40.9%   96.3%   95.4%   92.0%  

Don't get me wrong: I'm a big Joe Morgan guy. As an Astro fan, you take your links to the Hall where you can find them: an Eddie Mathews here, a Robin Roberts there. But Morgan's claim to the Hall, already somewhat tenuous, relies on two main things: 1) the back to back MVP years, 2) the 268 homers, until recently considered outstanding for a middle infielder.

Neither, I can with a great deal of conviction say, would have occurred had he stayed with the Astros. With him him or without him, the Astros were not going to become "The Big Orange Machine." No World Series, No Division Titles, No MVP for Little Joe. And while the Dome obviously helped his triples, it certainly hurt his homers.

1971 Topps # 264 1980 Burger King # 30

I don't know if it's fair to say that by prorating his numbers, Morgan would have finished a 22-year Astro career with 1313 runs, or 2138 hits. But I do know that even as it stands, John Kruk has a better career OBP than Morgan, and I do know that Gary Gaetti has more doubles. The Black Ink test gives Morgan a 15, ahead of Robin Yount certainly, but also behind Eddie Yost, Cecil Fielder, and one-time teammate George Foster. Now take away the MVP's, and about 100 homers. So yeah, I understand why Morgan wears a Reds cap in the Hall.

1992 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes # 40 2002 Topps American Pie Through the Year Relics # JM