Todd Helton - HOF Worthy? (1 Viewer)

[guru_007]

Obviously Mr. Helton is coming to the twilight of his career and has put up some rather stout numbers.

Detractors will inevitably say these numbers were enhanced by the Coors effect.

What say the baseball forum?

Entering the 2009 season:

.328 lifetime average (top 35 all time)

310 homers/1116 rbis

1957 career hits

3 time gold glove winner

5 time all star

Career OPS of 1.002 (10th all time - and everyone ahead of him is or will be a hof'er, Barry Bonds steroid issue non-withstanding)

At 35 this year, let's be generous and say he can put up 2,500 hits, 350 home runs, and very high lifetime Average/OPS numbers, will this be enough to merit an argument for him getting in?

I'll go on the record and say no. Nice career here, but not quite enough to get in.

 

[Eephus]

I think they should build a special wing of the HoF in Cooperstown, Colorado and store Helton's bust there half the year.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Park-adjusted OPS+ of 141. That's still pretty damn good.

 

[shadyridr]

Hes Don Mattingly only having played a full career healthy and played in one of the best hitters parks in baseball. I think hes borderline.

 

[guru_007]

A big thing for me when taking HOF consideration into account is MVP votes/awards received.

Helton has only come in the top 5 once in his career, and only 3 top 10's, which is all pretty underwhelming all things considered. But some of his lifetime numbers are pretty nice. I've always liked Helton as a player.

(side note, Manny Ramirez has never won an MVP award, or even come in 2nd place But 9 top 10 finishes is nice)

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Home/Away splits are pretty telling:

I Split		G   GS	PA	AB	R	H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO   GDP   SB  CS   BA	OBP   SLG   OPS  BAbip tOPS+Home		  840  810  3631  3006  712 1089 254  23 190  674  559  92  343   72   24  13  .362  .461  .652 1.113  .358   121Away		  821  792  3488  2956  431  868 217   8 120  442  482  78  467   73   12  13  .294  .394  .494  .888  .313	78

 

[Oh Yes!]

nope. if hes in than santo should be in

 

[Bogart]

His Black/Gray Ink and HOF Standards/Monitor say HOFer no doubt. I am not as sure.

His numbers are better than Ichiro.

 

[Oh Yes!]

I think they should build a special wing of the HoF in Cooperstown, Colorado and store Helton's bust there half the year.

good stuff here

 

[pantagrapher]

I like Helton, but for the era he's playing in, those numbers don't cut it for me.

 

[Finless]

He's got a good chance. He's been the face of the franchise for a decade. He's always been a class act and his consistency was ridiculous. There was a stretch there for 4 or 5 years where he was an absolute beast. He definitely got hosed in MVP voting in 2000 and 2001. Looks at his stats those years. A couple of the most solid offensive seasons ever...finishing 5th and 9th in voting

 

[avoiding injuries]

I don't care if he did/does play in Coors, 10th best OPS all time!!?? Lock.

 

[Darth Cheney]

Hall of Very Good.....who, if deemed by the public as clean, might get in under the "steroid free player in the steroid era" clause.

 

[Raider Nation]

Is the guy ever going to hit a HR this year??? He's killing me.

 

[Guest]

Is the guy ever going to hit a HR this year??? He's killing me.

Will you vote him into the Hall if he does?

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and both my 13 year old and my 10 year old are his biggest fans. The 10 year old wore one of his t-shirts for about 16 months before it fell apart.

He is in the MKIA HOF.

 

[Tau837]

I don't think he is particularly close right now, for these reasons:

1. His strongest numbers are rate-based numbers that will likely fall by a fair amount as he finishes out his career, assuming he's going to play for a few more years. Meanwhile, his cumulative numbers are not particularly impressive.

2. He has only played 15 postseason games, and played poorly in them: .211 BA, .584 OPS, 0 HR, 4 RBI.

3. As already mentioned, he has only 1 top 5 MVP finish (and it was 5th). 5 All Star games also seems pretty low for a HOFer.

 

[Eephus]

Bump for his announced retirement.

Helton has been picking up a paycheck for the last four years but he was extremely productive in his prime. He had five consecutive years with OPS over 1.000 bookended by two years in the .980 range. He appeared in 150+ games for seven straight years as well. The obvious problems are that his prime occurred during the PED-fueled offensive explosion of the early 21st century and that he racked up stats in an extremely friendly home park. He ends up looking like the ugly child of Rafael Palmeiro and Larry Walker which won't help his HoF chances at all. He never finished higher than 5th in MVP voting, and had one each of batting and RBI titles. He also has no postseason resume to speak of.

Very good career but he's been handsomely rewarded for it financially in this lifetime.

 

[Eephus]

I think they should build a special wing of the HoF in Cooperstown, Colorado and store Helton's bust there half the year.

I was kind of a jerk in my younger days

 

[ffldrew]

Having lived in Denver and watched him play - a great great player however I'd say I'm leaning to no. But to hold his MVP tally against him is pretty tough going against Albert and Bonds during most of those years. Since he came into the league - the MVP in the National League was won by a roid nearly half the time.

Also he did come into the league later in life after having been a QB at Tennessee - he probably would have been getting enough hits in those years to get to 3K - and then he would most likely be guaranteed entry.

However he is a bit like Hernanadez and Mattingly - and at a position, 1B that demands just a little bit better to get in the HOF. The only thing is he never played for teams like those 2 did - Rockies were super crap during a lot of his years. Not like the Yankees, Mets and Cardinals.