Series Preview #28: The Brewers And Astros' Shared History

While the Brewers and the Astros get ready for their third of six 2012 meetings, let's take a look back at some of the players both fan bases have had a chance to root for over the years. All told, 74 players have appeared in both a Brewer and Astro uniform. Don Sutton, an Astro in 1981-82 and a Brewer in 1982-84, is the only Hall of Famer among them.

Longest tenured Brewer position player who was also an Astro: Bill Hall

Hall was a sixth round draft pick for the Brewers, made his major league debut for Milwaukee in 2002 and appeared in 831 games over eight seasons with the Crew, playing six positions and hitting .253/.312/.446 with 102 home runs.

Hall has appeared in the majors for five different organizations since the Brewers traded him away in 2009 and one of them was the Astros, where he played in 46 games at the start of last season.

Longest tenured Brewer pitcher who was also an Astro: Randy Wolf

Wolf was an Astro for the stretch run in 2008, making 12 starts and posting a 3.57 ERA for a team that finished 3.5 games back of the Wild Card-winning Brewers.

After that campaign Wolf spent a single season in Los Angeles before joining the Brewers in 2010. He's now pitched 525.1 innings as a Brewer, the 27th most in franchise history.

Wolf and Cody Ransom are the two current Brewers who also played for the Astros. Nashville Sound Edwin Maysonet also used to play for Houston.

Follow the jump for more shared history!

Longest tenured Astros position player who was also a Brewer: Jimmy Wynn

Wynn played the first eleven of his 15 major league seasons in center field as a Colt .45/Astro, collecting 1291 of his 1665 hits and hitting 223 of his 291 home runs. "The Toy Cannon" also represented the Astros in his first All Star Game in 1967.

Wynn's tenure in Milwaukee was a little less storied, as he played his final 36 major league games as a Brewer in 1977 and hit .197/.294/.239.

Longest tenured Astros pitcher who was also a Brewer: Danny Darwin

Darwin played 21 major league seasons as a member of eight teams. The first seven of those seasons were spent with Texas before he joined the Brewers as a free agent in 1985. Milwaukee held on to him for 66 appearances and 43 starts (3.70 ERA over 348 innings) before trading him to Houston in 1986 in a deal that brought Don August and Mark Knudson to Milwaukee.

The Astros got the better of that deal as Darwin went on to pitch five seasons in his first stint as an Astro, posting a 3.21 ERA over 769 innings and leading the NL with a 2.21 ERA and 1.027 WHIP in 1990. Darwin left as a free agent following that season but returned as a 40-year-old in 1996 to appear in 15 more games.

The top five shared position players

Five players have appeared in at least 146 games as both a Brewer and Astro:

The top five shared pitchers

Five pitchers have worked at least 100 innings as both a Brewer and Astro: