Colorado Rockies: 3 players who prove Larry Walker’s HOF worthiness

Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies — 17 Jun 2001: Larry Walker #33 of the Colorado Rockies at bat during the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Rockies defeated the Reds 4-2.Mandatory Credit: Mark Lyons /Allsport

I’m just going to cut to the chase: Larry Walker was a better player than Tony Gwynn, Sr., Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. and Ichiro Suzuki and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame solely off those merits.

I’m not necessarily one for hot takes so a majority of you who haven’t looked at the numbers between these players are probably shouting, “Woah woah woah woah! Pump the brakes, man.” It may seem off base from the jump but I’m here to tell you how on base it actually is (and that’s not just a bad pun.

It’s an allusion to the fact that Larry Walker leads this pack of four with a career On Base Percentage of .400. But I digress).

The reason for comparing these four is simple: They’ve all put up Hall of Fame type numbers, all played right field and all played during relatively the same era. I’d love to tell you that Larry Walker is a Hall of Famer because he put up the same bWAR as Paul Waner … but a guy who played from 1926-1945 is an extremely different talent in an extremely different era. So to be more apples to apples, these three are the best comparisons to Walker.

I’m just going to cut to the chase: Larry Walker was a better player than Tony Gwynn, Sr., Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. and Ichiro Suzuki and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame solely off those merits.

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