Happy Belated Birthday to Todd Helton, the greatest player in the Colorado Rockies franchise history. From 1997-2013, he wore one jersey and excelled as the face of the franchise as a great all-around hitting and fielding First Baseman. He holds the record in almost any offensive category in Rockies franchise history.

Career Statistics/Accolades (1997-2013):

.316 BA 2,519 HITS 369 HR 1,406 RBI .414 OBP 1,401 RUNS

•5x All-Star

•4x Silver Slugger

•3x Gold Glove

• 2000 Batting Champion

        There’s no debate about how great of a Hitter Helton was, looking at his prime (Highlighted) year-by-year statistics via Baseball Reference.

       Lifetime he had 1,335 career Walks to only 1,175 Strikeouts, and for nine years drew more Walks than Strikeouts. Helton batted over .300 twelve times and ten times consecutively. The power was there, driving in 100 or more RBI in five straight seasons and hitting 30 or more Home Runs in six consecutive seasons. In 2000, Helton left his mark leading the league in Batting Average (.372), Runs Batted In (147), Doubles (59), Hits (216), and On Base Percentage (.463). Also, Helton was an excellent fielding First Baseman. Throughout 18,559.1 Innings at First Base, he maintained a lifetime .996 Fielding Percentage.

Now, when it comes to Todd Helton and judging his career, you have to wonder how much of his success was with Coors Field. If you look at his Home and Away Statistical Splits, his numbers were better at Coors Field than Away from Coors Field.

Todd Helton Career Statistics Home & Away:

Home: (1,141 Games)

.345 BA 1,394 HITS 227 HR 859 RBI .441 OBP 874 RUNS 

Away: (1,106 Games)

.287 BA 1,125 HITS 142 HR 547 RBI .386 OBP 527 RUNS

I understand that you may say at Home he was Lou Gehrig, but Away from Coors Field, he was very good but not great. Before I published this, I had the same opinion, but as a writer, my opinion on Helton being a Hall of Famer has changed, in all honesty. I’ve stated that I think Joey Votto deserves to be in the Hall of Fame one day, and he’s played in a hitter-friendly ballpark for his entire career, but he has played on a struggling team for about 90% of his career in Cincinnati. It’s the same thing with Todd Helton; he made the postseason twice during his time in Colorado. Also, I will add that playing in the NL West, most of his Away games did take place in pitcher-friendly ballparks. 

While I don’t have an official Hall of Fame vote, I do like to fill out the ballot and post it for fun, and I will put a check next to Helton’s name this upcoming year. He has five more years of eligibility left, and considering that he only needs 2.8% more of the vote to gain entry, it looks like he will one day be enshrined.

References:

  1. Todd Helton Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/heltoto01.shtml
  2. Todd Helton via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Helton