http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/53 Recent articles about Craig Biggio en-us To date, the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame has focused mainly on the truly elite superstars of the fantasy era - the five tool kings. But we all know great fantasy teams all have superior specialized batters. Here is a look at the best Run Producers, Power Guys, and Table Setters of the Fantasy Era. Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:54:10 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/274150 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/274150 The Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame looks at the history of second base. Ryno was king of the 80's, Alomar/Biggio ruled the 90's, and it appears Utley is heir apparent of the aughts - but there were many golden seasons in between. Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:13:40 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/255489 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/255489 Razzball and the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame enshrine the second baggers. Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:22:06 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/253645 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/253645 BOCA RATON, FL (Sportsman's Daily Wire Service) Buried deep beneath mountains of baseball stats and regression analysis beats the heart of an incurable romantic. Based on data and an assortment of pie charts and bar graphs embedded in a series of spreadsheets that were sent to TSD's Stats and Analysis Desk, for over a decade (1989-1999), Bill James, the father of sabremetrics, was madly in love with Craig Biggio, catcher, second baseman, and briefly centerfielder before retuning to second base for the Houston Astros. Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:23:55 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/170139 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/170139 Getting hit by a pitch. It's baseball's version of a car crash in auto racing. Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:43:00 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/140706 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/140706 The future Hall of Fame credentials of Michael Young; why Jarrod Saltalamacchia should be a lock for the Rangers' 25-man roster out of spring training; is club owner Tom Hicks on the brink of selling off his ownership share in Liverpool FC? Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:05:00 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80931 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80931 Russell Martin, thanks to a great sophomore season that saw him accumulate 20+ stolen bases and 85+ HR/RBI,was easily the #1 rated catcher of 2007. How did he get here and what does 2008 have in store? The Baseball Lab investigates. Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:10:55 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/33662 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/33662 Fantasy Insider Online and the Baseball Lab are back with the second installment in a series of articles looking into the best fantasy seasons at each position. Today, it's the Second Base corp and we'll answer the question who passed Chase Utley up on the player rater - Brandon Phillips or Brian Roberts Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:04:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/30740 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/30740 I usually don't write baseball articles, as I pretty much ceased being a fan shortly after the 1981 strike. Since that time I have attended at total of 4 games in Houston and 2 of those were to bring my sons so that they would at least have the chance to experience a Major League game. In fact I very rarely even watch a game on TV or spend much time on the sports highlights as I was simply totally turned off by the players arrogance in their feelings of going on strike. That being said, I just felt compelled to write an article on the most recent Astro to retire, as I feel that while I didn't see a lot of Craig Biggio's career, in this writers opinion, he is definitely what would be called a "throw-back" player, one who would have excelled no matter which decade he played in. Let's look at some of "Bige's" (Houston area nick-name) numbers. 3060, now that is a nice ROUND number, isn't it. This is the number of hits that Biggio ended his career with. It is a number that Houston Astro fans will remember for generations. Craig is the first Astro to reach this milestone, and probably the last for at least 20 years or so. The 3060 hits placed him 20th in MLB history and he will more than likely occupy that spot for the next 5-10 years, as the next active player Barry "roids" Bonds is 135 hits away, and not likely to get that number, as it has been 4 years since he got that many hits in a season, failing to even reach 100 the past 2 seasons. 668, this is the number of doubles that Craig finished his career with. This number rank 5th all time trailing only Tris speaker, Pete Rose, Stan Musial and Ty Cobb. Craig is the only strictly right-handed hitter in the top 5, Rose was a switch hitter and the 3 were lefties. Again, this spot in the record book is safe for quite a while as the next active is Bond at 601 and then Luis Gonzales is at number 20, 98 doubles away and he is 39 years old. Biggio also finished his career with a .281 batting average. 285, there are several record books that have him second all time in the hit by pitch category having being "plunked" 285 times. The all-time record, according to baseball reference.com is 287 by Hughie Jennings who played in the 1880's; yea those stats are really verifiable aren't they. It is amazing that he could be hit that many times and still survive 20 year career, but he did, which is what made Biggio Biggio. He made the All Star team 9 times at 2 different positions, catcher, which is what he was when he came up as a rookie and then as a second baseman, for which he excelled for many years winning 4 straight golden glove awards from 1994-97. Craig is the only player in MLB history to make the All Star team at these positions. Then after 14 years in the major's he realized that the Astros best chance to win a championship was for them to sign Jeff Kent who was also a second baseman, Biggio readily moved to the outfield to allow Kent to play second. After 18 seasons it was beginning to look like Biggio and his teammate and best friend of 15 seasons, Jeff Bagwell were never going to make it to the World Series, this goal was finally realized in 2005, when the Astros made the playoff on the final day of the season as the wild card. Their playoff run started with a 3 games to 1 defeat of their longtime nemesis the Atlanta Braves. This lead to a NLCS match-up against fellow divisional winner the St. Louis Cardinals and Astro Basher Albert Pujols, once again the Astros did the improbable and defeated the vaunted Cardinals 4 games to 2 and it was one to the franchises first World Series appearance against the Chicago White Sox, where the dream came to a crashing halt, as the 'stros were swept by the White Sox in 4 straight games. Teaming with Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman and Derrick Bell, they earned the nick-name the Killer B's for their clutch hitting as well as their last name. Biggio was the leader of this group, as it was his tenacity, grit and determination at the leadoff spot that drove the Astros train. Biggio was as durable as he was consistent, playing in at least 130 games in 18 of his 20 seasons. The only two seasons Craig did not play in that many was in 2000 when a sever knee injury August 1st put him on the shelf and then in the strike season of 1994 when he played in 114 of the 115 the team played. In his final game against the Atlanta Braves during the ceremony to honor his career Biggio stated "I want to thank the fans for accepting me here in the state of Texas for the last 20 years," Biggio said. "People ask me why I play the game the way I do. It's because you guys expect it. I love you. I'm going to miss you very, very, very much." The one thing that Craig participates in that doesn't get a lot of attention is that he is a very active member of the Sunshine Kids. The Sunshine Kids is an organization that provides pediatric cancer patients opportunities to participate in positive group activities which promoted self-esteem, personal accomplishment and just plain old fashioned fun! Every season Craig brings a group of these children to the ball park to allow them the chance to get on the field, meet their heroes and be able to feel like a normal child, if just for a few hours. If there is one thing that deserves to be put immediately into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in which I am certain Craig, will be inducted into in 2012, it would have to be his on the field trademark. Through it all Craig's trademark has been his batting helmet on which he puts pine tar, dirt, and more pine tar on his batting helmet...and he likes it that way. In closing I just want to say, Thank You Craig, you provided millions and millions a vision of the way the game of baseball is suppose to be played you represented the Houston area with a style that won't be seen again for a long time. You left a legend behind. Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:40:11 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/30000 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/30000 It's Craig Biggio's last chance to catch. Lou Piniella's last chance to yell at people. Barry Bonds' last chance to be liked by a team. Julio Franco's last chance to play without AARP eligibility. Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:48:10 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/28339 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/28339 Here's another quality article from Beyond the Boxscore that demystifies the 100 RBI season. And for those not in the know, VORP stands for value over replacement player. Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:19:25 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/26767 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/26767 The 2007 season is almost in the books, and it is safe to say that fans have definitely been treated this year given all of the memorable highlights from several players across the league. Well it may have been a mere coincidence, the number of achievements this season seems to have far surpassed any other year, and a few more may still be looming. Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:40:44 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/25967 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/25967 Craig Biggio is on the verge of history the likes of which Barry Bonds can only dream about. Forget homeruns. Forget walks. Forget runs scored. With dusk falling on a two decade career, the ultimate team player finds himself chasing the ultimate team mark: most times hit by a pitched ball in a major league career. Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:08:34 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/23011 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/23011 Holy Hurting Crew!!! The announcement of Biggio retiring at the end of the year comes as no surprise. Chris Young leaves in the 2nd. Colon goes on the DL. Carl Crawford returns and more news from around the MLB. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:54:43 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/20929 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/20929 After a distinguished career, Craig Biggio will retire at season's end. Biggio, now with 3,000 hits has decided he wants to go out on top: "I'm going out on top. Other than a World Series, the [3,000th] hit thing was unbelievable. To me, I'm going out on top. It makes me feel great, being able to do it this way. And the fans can remember you on a positive note," he said, according to the Web site. Biggio has been a shell of his former self for years, so i may argue about him going out on top, but regardless, he has had a terrific career and should be in the Hall of Fame. Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:38:00 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/20856 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/20856