Colorado Rockies: The Hall of Fame case for Larry Walker

Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies — DENVER – JULY 9: Right fielder Larry Walker #33 of the Colorado Rockies hits a two-run double against the San Francisco Giants during the MLB game at Coors Field on July 9, 2003 in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies won 11-7. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

Thus far with about 16 percent of the ballots in, both of the Colorado Rockies candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame (Todd Helton and Larry Walker) would fall short of election. Helton is trailing Walker by a wide margin but as Rockies fans know, both of them are more than deserving of election to the Hall of Fame (as long as you do your objective research). A few weeks ago, we made the case for Helton for the Hall of Fame but today, we will make the case for Larry Walker.

Larry Walker is in his penultimate season on the writer’s ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Whether he makes it with the writers or not, the induction of Lee Smith and Harold Baines (particularly, of Baines) helps the case for Walker if he makes the Veterans Committee. I won’t go into all the details of Baines but if you objectively look at his stats, he simply is not a Hall of Famer compared to his peers.

However, for Walker, as of Wednesday afternoon, with 66 ballots in the Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker by Ryan Thibodaux, which is about 16 percent, Walker is on 44 of those ballots, or 66.7 percent, which would still mean that Walker is 8 percent short of induction. But of the 44 ballots that Walker has been on, he wasn’t on 10 of those ballots last year so at least he is headed in the right direction.

Even though he’s headed in the right direction, he should already be in the Hall of Fame. So, without further ado, let’s look at his case.

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