Colorado Rockies: Bob Costas names Todd Helton to his Top 10 First Basemen list since 1969

Former Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton is one of a few players that have seen big gains in the Hall of Fame voting in recent years but on MLB Network’s Top 10 Right Now, Helton seems to be a bit underrated.

Between Bob Costas and Brian Kenny, Helton only made one of their top ten first basemen since 1969 lists (Costas) and he was ranked ninth on the list. The waters for first base are a bit muddy since they do not have a Top 10 list for designated hitters. As a result, many players that could have been classified as DH’s (Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, and others) rather than a first baseman were not.

Also, like the left-field list that we discussed yesterday, Costas said that he is only considering their career after 1969 (the start of the divisional era), which leaves some players off his ballot whereas Kenny is considering players that played after 1969 but their prime may have been a bit before then.

Here are their respective lists.

Costas’ list

1. Albert Pujols
2. Frank Thomas
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Jim Thome
5. Eddie Murray
6. Willie Stargell
7. Mark McGwire
8. Joey Votto
9. Todd Helton
10. Jeff Bagwell

Kenny’s list

1. Pujols
2. Willie McCovey
3. Stargell
4. Cabrera
5. Bagwell
6. Dick Allen
7. Thomas
8. Thome
9. Keith Hernandez
10. Fred McGriff

For Costas, he said that Steve Garvey, Hernandez, McGriff, Lance Berkman (which is iffy since he only played 43 percent of his games there), McCovey, Harmon Killebrew, Allen, and Don Mattingly were all really close for him.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

For Helton, though, you can contend that he should be higher on Costas’ list and, at least, somewhere on Kenny’s list. If you look at Baseball-Reference’s WAR, Helton is 17th all-time among first baseman. Here are the players ahead of him that played in the divisional era.

1. Pujols
2. Bagwell
3. Thomas
4. Thome
5. Rafael Palmeiro
6. Cabrera
7. Murray
8. McCovey
9. McGwire
10. Votto
11. Helton

But by WAR7, which is the WAR for each player’s seven best seasons, Helton is well within the top ten among first basemen in the divisional era.

1. Pujols
2. Bagwell
3. Votto
4. Helton

You can check out the entire segment with Costas and Kenny here.

If they had a DH list, Helton would likely have been on Kenny’s list but you can contend that he should have been on the list in the first place. After all, in the near future, he may even become the second Hall of Famer to be a Colorado Rockie.