Colorado Rockies: what Larry Walker’s Hall of Fame troubles mean for Todd Helton

Late yesterday afternoon, the results of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America’s votes for the next inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame were announced and unfortunately for Rockies fans, Larry Walker was not a part of the four players who made above the 75 percent threshold.

Not surprisingly, Larry Walker will not be apart of the festivities for the Hall of Famers in Cooperstown, New York this July.

However, he is trending in the right direction as he got 34.1 percent of the vote, a18.6 percent in the ballots since getting 15.5 percent of the vote in 2016 and a gain of 23.9 percent since 2014 when he got 10.2 percent of the vote on his fourth ballot in 2014. However, with another Rockie, Todd Helton, being on the Hall of Fame ballot starting in 2019, will he see the same issues as Walker has?

A career comparison between Walker and Helton

Longevity and Durability

One of the main things that critics of Walker’s Hall of Fame candidacy cite is his lack of longevity and durability. He only played for 17 seasons and he only played in more than 140 games in four seasons and more than 150 games in one season. Overall, he only averaged 117 games played per season in his career.

Todd Helton has the same longevity problem as he also only played in parts of 17 seasons. However, he played in more than 150 games in nine of those seasons and above 140 in two more seasons but in his final six seasons from 2008 through 2013, he only played in more than 124 games in a season once (in 2009). In those seasons, he only averaged 112 games played and if you take away 2009, he averaged 104 games per season.