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Why my mock Hall of Fame ballot includes two Colorado Rockies

By Kevin Larson

DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 18: Todd Helton #17 of the Colorado Rockies slides across home plate to score from second base in the sixth inning of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field on September 18, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 18: Todd Helton #17 of the Colorado Rockies slides across home plate to score from second base in the sixth inning of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field on September 18, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /
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Larry Walker
DENVER – MAY 25: Larry Walker #33 of the Colorado Rockies throws the ball in from the outfield during the game against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field on May 25, 2003 in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies defeated the Giants 5-1. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /

Initially, I thought it wasn’t going to be tough to come up with 10 worthy Hall of Fame players to vote for with the names on this year’s ballot. I don’t have a “small hall” type of mindset so coming up with 10 players didn’t seem to be a difficult task. Once I started to crack down on the numbers, though, it figured to be tougher than I had anticipated.

A lot of my reasoning for choosing the players I would vote for is based off the idea of how closely their level of performance was compared to that of an average Hall of Famer at their position and the main basis for that is WAR (though other factors are considered as well).

Right off the bat there were five players who jump off the paper as clear Hall of Famers:

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Curt Schilling
Larry Walker
Derek Jeter

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With Bonds and Clemens, I’m simply not of the belief that them taking steroids in the era they did really took away from their overall value. It’s just not as big of a deal to me given that nearly everyone else in the late 90s was on them. And even if you do decide to take away from what they did, they were still head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. They get my vote without much hesitation.

Curt Schilling was a dominant pitcher who won multiple World Series rings, including the historic run in 2004 with the Red Sox. His antics after he retired are nothing less than despicable, but they should be viewed separately from his baseball career that clearly was Hall of Fame-worthy.

You already know my case for Walker. And while Jeter’s advanced numbers show that maybe he wasn’t the Baseball God that New York makes him out to be, he’s still an above average Hall of Fame shortstop. He deserves to be in (no matter how fun it is to poke and pry at Yankee fans on social media).

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