Colorado Rockies: What are the 25 best seasons by Rockies aged 25 or under?

17) Carlos Gonzalez’s 2011 season (Age 25 season)

In that same season that Chacin had a good pitching season for the Rockies, Carlos Gonzalez had an excellent offensive season for the team,

In 127 games, he hit 26 home runs and 92 RBI with 20 stolen bases. He had an offensive slash line of .295/.363/.526 with an OPS+ of 125. He also had 142 hits, 27 doubles, and 8 Defensive Runs Saved.

His 4.3 WAR was second on the Rockies that year as only Troy Tulowitzki, who was in his age 26 season in 2011, was higher on the team as his WAR was 6.2.

16) Todd Helton’s 1998 season (Age 24 season)

This is one of the cases where you definitely can’t just go by WAR. In fact, if you went strictly by WAR, this season would be borderline at making our list at all. But considering how poor defensive metrics are before 2002 (the pre-Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) era) and how he played offensively, Helton’s 1998 season makes it here.

In Helton’s first full season in the majors, he played in 152 games and he had 167 hits, including 37 doubles, 25 home runs, 97 RBI, 53 walks, and only 54 strikeouts. He had an offensive slash line of .315/.380/.511 and an OPS+ of 119. The reason why that OPS+ isn’t higher is a) Coors Field and b) it was the steroid era and, therefore, offense was sky-high throughout the entire sport. His WAR, though, was only 3.2.