Craig Biggio

Most of the national exposure has been on Roger Clemens coming down to perhaps his final game (and rightly so) but another player may be close to closing out his career in Houston too. It is no lock that Craig Biggio will be back in an Astro uniform in 2007 and if he's not playing for Houston - I don't see him playing again.

Biggio should put himself into pretty elite company by the end of the season. Consider:

- Biggio currently has 4510 total bases. His next base will tie him with Mickey Mantle and Sammy Sosa for 35th place all-time in total bases. Two bases ties him with Tony Perez for 34th place. If Biggio plays next year he should pass Robin Yount for 26th place all-time.

- Biggio needs 4 games and 7 at bats to move past George Brett in both categories (into 25th place and 16th place respectively).

- Biggio has 1774 career runs. He needs one more to move past Charlie Gehringer for 18th place all-time. If he scores 9 more runs he'll pass Paul Molitor for 17th place.

- Biggio has 2926 career hits that puts him just 1 behind All Simmons for 33rd place. With 7 more hits - Biggio passes Willie Keeler for 30th place. Jake Beckley and Rogers Hornsby are tied for 31st with 2930.

- Biggio needs 4 doubles to pass Honus Wagner for 8th place on the all-time list (a side benefit of playing at the Astrodome all those years).

Those are just some marks Biggio can hit this year. The fact that he is so close to 3,000 hits tells me that if his body can handle another season then the Astros will have him back because the countdown to 3,000 hits will be a big ticket seller for the Astros (especially when you consider that the Astros are paying Biggio just $4 million this year).