Colorado Rockies fall short in FanSided Mock Hall of Fame balloting

This weekend, Colorado Rockies fans voted Larry Walker and Todd Helton into baseball immortality during Rox Pile’s mock Hall of Fame balloting. Today, FanSided experts showed once again that it is seemingly hard to grasp the greatness of these two players for many outside the Mountain Time Zone.

In FanSided’s Mock Hall of Fame balloting, with 42 site experts (also known as the editors of the respective sites) from around FanSided’s Major League Baseball-focused sites voting, both Walker and Helton fell short of the needed ballots to gain eligibility to Cooperstown.

Of 42 votes, Walker gathered 29 votes (69 percent) while Helton was named on 17 ballots (40.5 percent). As a note, both Rox Pile site experts (Noah Yingling and me) voted for both Walker and Helton on their ballots. You can see Yingling’s complete ballot and explanations by clicking here. I’ll share mine on Tuesday.

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As a note, the only player elected to the Hall of Fame in this mock FanSided exercise was Derek Jeter. You can see the entire FanSided list of results (and plenty of explanations from our crew, including Noah and me) by clicking here. Rockies fans hope that this is not how real life will play out when the newest Hall of Fame class in announced on Tuesday afternoon.

After talking to some other site experts on why they didn’t choose Walker and Helton, there was one common theme: Coors Field and the perceived offensive booth both players received from playing at altitude. Additionally, one mentioned to me Walker’s injury issues as a reason why he wasn’t chosen on his ballot.

These two reasons are often stated by people who question the validity of both Walker and Helton (and, by logic train, any Rockies who might be considered for the Hall of Fame in the future, including Nolan Arenado) have been debunked countless times through statistical evidence. If you want to see some of the statistics that are putting holes in the “Coors” and “Walker injury” theories, be sure you’re following our friend Manny Randhawa on Twitter.

We will be watching Tuesday to see if Walker makes the Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year of eligibility from BBWAA voters. We will keep Rockies fans updated on the site with the latest news.