Former Colorado Rockies that are on the 2018 Hall of Fame Ballot

Larry Walker is the longest tenured Rockie in this list and he has the best shot at making the Hall of Fame. He definitely is a good candidate for it but considering the log-jam of players and people saying that his numbers are due to playing in Coors Field, Walker has fallen through the cracks in the national scope of things.

However, he is one of the best, and most important Rockies, in franchise history, as we pointed out in this article from this Tuesday.

In his career, Walker spent 10 of his 17 MLB seasons with the Rockies. Overall, he played in 1,988 games with 2,160 hits, 471 doubles, 383 home runs, 1,311 RBI, 230 stolen bases, 913 walks compared to just 1,231 strikeouts with a .313 career batting average, a .400 on-base percentage, a .565 slugging percentage, and an OPS+ of 141 (which, mind you, is adjusted to the average of the park’s players play in and, still, Walker is 41 percent better than league average).

He is a five-time All-Star (including four of them in a Rockies uniform), a seven-time Gold Glove Award winner (with five in a Rockies uniform), a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner (2 while with the Rockies), a three-time batting champion (all with the Rockies), a one-time home run leader (with the Rockies), and he even won the 1997 National League Most Valuable Player of the Year Award.

However, in the seven previous times that Walker was on the Hall of Fame ballot, the 22.9 percent of the vote that he garnered in 2012 is the highest he has ever achieved, which is far short of the 75 percent required for induction. Last season, he got 21.9 percent, which has increased a few points every year since 2013, when he got just 10.2 percent of the vote.

On Baseball Reference, they have a section that has the top ten players that are similar to the one you are looking at. For Walker, four of the 10 most similar are Hall of Famers and, the number one most comparable player is former Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider. Snider, made it into the Hall of Fame on his 11th ballot in 1980 (at the time, you could be on the ballot up to 15 times. A few years ago, they dropped that to just 10 years).

Walker will probably gain some votes but I would not be shocked if he doesn’t get more than even thirty percent this season.

Jamie Moyer spent the last season of his 25 year MLB career in a Rockies uniform. He went 2-5 with a 5.70 ERA in 10 starts in 2012 before being granted his release.

However, he pitched much better in the 24 previous seasons as he was a one-time All-Star and he placed in the top 10 in Cy Young Award voting in three different seasons.

He ended his career with a 269-209 record with a 4.25 ERA. With that ERA and his ERA+ (104), I guarantee that Moyer will not even garner the five percent of the vote required to stay on the ballot next year. I would put his vote total at one ballot.

Livan Hernandez

Livan Hernandez started eight games for the Rockies in 2008 and he had a disastrous time with the Rockies as he had an ERA of 8.03.

In his career, he pitched much better as he had an ERA of 4.44 and a record of 178-177 but, again, that won’t get him even getting close enough to get five percent, let alone get in to the Hall of Fame.

Kevin Millwood

Millwood spent his 2011 season with the Rockies. He only made nine starts as he joined the team in August after he spent the first part of the season with the Boston Red Sox in the minor leagues. He had an ERA of 3.98 while with the Rockies.

However, in his MLB career, he was 169-152 and an ERA of 4.11 is not going to get him in the Hall of Fame. I think that he will be in the same vote as Moyer: he will be off the ballot after this year as he won’t accrue enough votes to stay on the ballot.

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Brad Lidge

One interesting name on the Hall of Fame ballot is Brad Lidge. He never played for the Rockies as he was a set-up man or closer for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals. However, he graduated from Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado (about 15 miles south of Coors Field). Currently, he resides in Englewood (about 10 miles south of Coors Field).

In his 11 season MLB career, he went 26-32 with a 3.54 ERA and 225 career saves. Like the others, I highly doubt that he will make the Hall of Fame this year (or ever, to be quite honest) but I think that his voting total has a potential of being intriguing. He ranked in the top ten in Cy Young Award voting twice and he was a two-time All-Star. I think that he will probably get a few votes due to these but not enough to get the minimum of five percent.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, of the people here, Larry Walker has the best chance of making the Hall of Fame but his time is running out. It’s a shame that he has been overlooked because of the “Coors Field effect.” I also think that a big reason for it is because the 10 player limit on the ballot.

If writers could just vote “yes” or “no” on a player and not just be limited to 10 players (believe me, if I had a vote, there is 16 or 17 players that I would believe are Hall of Famers).

Next: Who would be on the Rockies franchise Mount Rushmore?

The other former Rockies that we discussed will most likely not even be on the 2019 Hall of Fame ballot. However, Mr. Rockie himself, Todd Helton, will be on that ballot so it could be one to look forward to for Rockies fans.