Rox Pile’s Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Part Seven
More from Rox Pile
- A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
- Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
- Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
- Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
- Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?
Jim Thome was one of the best home run hitters in the history of baseball. Thome affirmed this by being only one of only nine players to make it to the 600 homerun club. If his massive homerun total alone wasn’t enough, Jim Thome also batted in 1699 runs, scored 1583 runs, and reached base on balls 1747 times over his 22 year career. Only 5 other players in major league history have achieved 500 home runs/1600 RBI/1500 Runs/1700 Walks…Barry Bonds, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
Once again, Larry Walker appears on the ballot for the Hall of Fame. No matter how you choose to decipher his numbers, there aren’t many outfielders that were as complete of a player as Walker. Not too long ago, I went to remind myself of a few of his career accolades on Baseball-Reference.com, though.
He was the Most Valuable Player in 1997, five-time All-Star, seven-time Gold Glove recipient, three time Silver Slugger, and won 3 batting titles to boot. He certainly has the hardware that would indicate Hall of Famer…but Coors, right? Larry Walker gets a lot of push back due to the fact that he played a lot of his career at Coors Field.
Next: Part Six in our Hall of Fame ballot series
However, if you take a gander at park adjusted stats like OPS+ and WAR, Larry Walker’s name still appears amongst the top of the lists.