Colorado Rockies: Who would be on the team’s Mount Rushmore?

As they approach their 25th anniversary, the Colorado Rockies have built up a pretty good history full of excellent baseball players. But which players deserve the right to be on the team’s “Mount Rushmore?” Only four players get this right: Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, and Nolan Arenado. Here’s why:

Larry Walker:

Walker spent 10 of his 18 MLB years in Colorado. Not enough time to be an all time great Blake Street Bomber? Think again. In those 10 years, he hit 258 home runs with over 800 RBI and an unbelievable average of .334. During his tenure, he also won MVP, the only to do so in a Rockies uniform to this date. He also netted 4 Gold Glove awards and 2 Silver Slugger awards while with the Rockies.

Sure, Walker did not start off or finish with the Rockies, but does that really matter? The majority of his career was in Colorado, including the largest portion of his success. He may not be everyone’s hero, but he is more than deserving of a spot on the Rockies’ Mount Rushmore.

Todd Helton:

Larry Walker may not be everyone’s hero, but Todd Helton might just be. His best seasons, which took place in the early 2000’s, saw Helton put up numbers worthy of being a top ten player in the entire MLB for almost half a decade. He put up an unreal number of doubles: 592. This puts him in the top 20 all time in doubles, ahead of Wade Boggs, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, and, for now, Miguel Cabrera. Add that together with over 350 home runs and 1409 RBI’s witha  career .316 batting average, and you have yourself an all around superstar worthy of the Hall of Fame.

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Skeptics would refuse to include Helton into the Hall of Fame since he is notorious for playing ball in the best hitters ballpark in the league: Coors Field. This makes people discredit just how dominant Helton was. The bottom line is this: he was the biggest contributor in a team that won the National League Championship in 2007 and is clearly an iconic figure on the Rockies’ Mount Rushmore.

Troy Tulowitzki:

This is probably the most controversial player on our Mount Rushmore. After suddenly being shipped to Toronto in the summer of 2015, Tulo suddenly got rid of Colorado from his life. He never talks about them, and even went as far as to miss the 2007 Rockies World Series reuinion. Matt Holiday missed as well, but sent a video with his remembrance. Tulowitzki did no such thing.

However, Tulo was also an iconic player on that 2007 team, and really took the reigns of Todd Helton and was the next Rockies superstar. Tulo won 2 Gold Glove awards almost unanimously in 2010 and 2011, 2 of the 3 years he was considered a top 5 player in the National League.

Unfortunately, he was not able to keep up the success in Toronto, as his average has dropped by almost 50 points from .299 down to .250, which is really bad for Rockies fans hoping for Todd Helton to be in the Hall of Fame. Essentially, Tulo is literal proof of the “Coors Field benefit” that states that playing in Colorado helps hitting statistics.

Nolan Arenado:

Nolan has only been in the MLB for 5 years, but has already set himself out to be one of the best defensive third basemen in the history of baseball. He has taken home a gold glove every single year of his entire career, with an unreal fielding percentage of .962.

This includes 3 silver sluggers, meaning he was the best third baseman in the league for 60% of the years he has even been in the league.

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To sum it up, he has been amazing, and already gets a spot on the Rockies’ Mount Rushmore despite only having 5 years under his belt.