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

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Final Thoughts

Walker is trending upward in the Hall of Fame voting but he only has two seasons remaining on the ballot. With his current pace of gaining, though, he would still fall well short of the Hall of Fame. He gained 12.2 percent between last year and this year and if he does that each of the next two ballots, he’d still be 16.5 percent short at 58.5 percent of the vote. He need to make up 20.5 percent of the vote each year to get in as he is 40.9 percent short of induction now.

With Walker struggling this much in his first seven ballots, I can’t see Todd Helton doing much better, if he’s doing better at all. He’s not as good defensively, not as good offensively by OPS+, spent his entire career playing half of his games at Coors when Walker at least spent time in Montreal and St. Louis, and during their peak, Helton and Walker essentially put up the same numbers with Walker averaging nearly two dozen less games per season.

Next: The results of our hypothetical Hall of Fame ballots of us here at Rox Pile

Two of the Rockies franchise players will be on the ballot together for the first time and, barring anything unforeseen, neither one of them will be elected next season either.