The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2021 Hall of Fame ballot. Originally written for the 2019 election, it has been updated to reflect recent voting results as well as additional research. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule and a chance to fill out a Hall of Fame ballot for our crowdsourcing project, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball-Reference version unless otherwise indicated.
Baseball at high elevation is strange. The air is less thick, so pitched balls break less and batted balls convey farther — conditions that extraordinarily favour the hitters. In the interim, decreased oxygen levels make breathing more enthusiastically, actual effort all the more expensive, and recuperation times longer. Since the time significant association baseball showed up in Colorado in 1993, no player set up with a more substantial amount. The advantages and disadvantages of playing at a mile-high rise, then Todd Helton.
A Knoxville local whose vocation way at first prompted the field, in front of Peyton Manning on the University of Tennessee quarterback profundity outline, Helton moved his accentuation back to baseball in school and went through his whole 17-year profession (1997-2013) playing for the Rockies. "The Godfather" was beyond question the best part of establishment history, its chief in most significant hostile checking detail classes. He made five All-Star groups, won three Gold Gloves, a slice line triple crown — driving in batting average, on-base rate, and slugging rate in a similar season — and filled in as a starter and a group chief for two season finisher groups, including Colorado's just flag champ. He posted batting midpoints over .300 12 times, on-base rates over .400 nine times, and slugging rates over .500 eight times. He pounded 40 copies or more multiple times and 30 homers or more multiple times; twice, he bested 400 complete bases, an accomplishment that only one other Player (Sammy Sosa) has rehashed in the post-1960 development time. He drew in any event 100 strolls in a season multiple times, yet just struck out multiple times or all the more once; numerous times, he strolled more than he struck out.
Since Helton did the entirety of this while investing half of his energy at Coors Field, many excuses his achievements without even batting an eye. That he did as such with as minimal self-advancement as could be expected — and barely more openness — while working for a group that had the majors' 6th most noticeably awful record during his residency makes such excusal that a lot simpler, as does the drop-off at the last part of his vocation, when wounds, most strikingly constant back misfortunes, had sapped his influence. He was "The Greatest Player Nobody Knows," as the New York Times called him in 2000, a year when he played with a .400 batting normal into September.
On account of Helton's backbone and cutting edge insights that adapt to the high-offence climate in an exceptionally high-scoring period in baseball history, we can all the more unmistakably see that he positioned among his time's best players and has accreditations that wouldn't be strange in Cooperstown. However, similar to previous partner Larry Walker, a complete player who spent only 59% of his profession with the Rockies, Helton's office began gradually. He got only 16.5% of the vote in his first year, 3.8% not as much as Walker did in his 2011 introduction, however on account of a less jam-packed voting form — and maybe Walker's coattails, as he bounced 22 rate focuses and was chosen in his last year of qualification — Helton rose to 29.2% a year ago, making the fourth-biggest addition of any bringing candidate back. In any case, he has far to go before he can join his previous colleague in the Hall of Fame.
Brought into the world in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 20, 1973, Helton is the child of previous small-time catcher Jerry Helton, who burned through 1968-69 in the Twins' association yet resigned to function as a substance sales rep and back his family. When Todd was five, Jerry fabricated a tee from a clothes washer hose and educated his child on hitting in the family's carport, demonstrating Rod Carew's inverse field approach; if Todd pulled the ball, he hit a fibreglass fishing boat stopped in the corner.
Helton immediately got known for his baseball ability, acquiring the epithet "The Blond Bomber." By the time he arrived at Knoxville's Central High School, he was a multi-sport star, beginning at quarterback and protective back for the varsity football crew as a green bean. Before long joining the varsity ball club, playing the outfield, a respectable starting point, and throwing. As a senior, he was the Player of the Year for his area in both football and baseball; on the turf, he passed for 22 scores, scored 11 more, created 2,455 yards of all-out offence, and blocked seven passes while on the jewel he hit .655 with 12 homers.
The Padres drafted Helton in the second round of the 1992 draft, offering a $450,000 reward. However, he instead decided to acknowledge a football grant to the University of Tennessee. In the wake of filling in as reinforcement to future NFL quarterback Heath Shuler as a rookie and sophomore in 1992 and '93, he took over for the harmed Jerry Colquitt when the last tore knee tendons in the principal drive of the initial game in 1994. Although he mobilized the Volunteers to three final quarter scores, they lost 25-23, and he endured his knee injury in the season's fourth game, opening the entryway for the first year recruit Manning.
In the meantime, Helton was a stroll in the ball club, playing a respectable starting point and pitching (mentor Rod Delmonico called him "the best pitcher I at any point trained"). In his lesser year (1995), he won the Dick Howser Trophy, given to the public school player of the year. The Rockies picked him with the eighth pick in that year's draft — another football player, Nebraska punter Darin Erstad, was selected first — and marked him for a reward of $892,000.
Helton started his professional vocation at A-level Asheville yet hit just .254/.339/.333 with one homer in 54 games. All things being equal, Baseball America positioned him 32nd on their Top 100 Prospects list the following spring. Dumping a force glad style that didn't precisely measure up for him, he improved to .336/.427/.492 with nine homers split between the Rockies' Double-A New Haven and Triple-A Colorado Springs offshoots, ascending to sixteenth on BA's rundown. After a sizzling .352/.434/.564 with 16 homers in 99 games at Triple-A, he joined the Rockies, appearing on August 2, 1997 — as a left defender, since the mainstream and gainful Andres Galarraga involved a respectable starting point — by going 2-for-4 against the Pirates, with a solitary off Francisco Cordova and a homer off Marc Wilkins.
Helton went 2-for-4 with a homer off Jon Lieber the following day and gathered a sum of seven hits over his initial four games. Investing the more significant part of his energy in the outfield corners, he completed at .280/.337/.484 with five homers in 101 PA, not many enough to hold his new kid on the block qualification.
Even though Galarraga had acquired All-Star respects with 41 homers and an association high 140 RBI in 1997, the Rockies let the 36-year-old Big Cat withdraw as a free specialist to account for the 24-year-old Helton. While he multiplied twice on Opening Day, he didn't hit his first homer of the period until May 5, yet got comfortable decently, hitting .315/.380/.530 with 25 homers, a 119 OPS+, great guard (+9 runs as indicated by Total Zone) and 3.2 WAR. In a tight NL Rookie of the Year race, he got 15 ahead of all comers votes, yet Cubs starter Kerry Wood, the 21-year-old phenom who had amazed with a 20-strikeout execution on May 6 and completed the year with 233 strikeouts, gotten 16 in front of the pack votes and won.
In 1999, the Rockies highlighted their obligation to Helton with a four-year, $12 million expansion. He reacted by dispatching 35 homers. However, no matter how you look at it, enhancements in his batting line (.320/.395/.587) added up to simply a three-point acquire in OPS+, as NL scoring rose from 4.60 runs per game to 5.00. Then, his safeguard plunged to average, and his WAR to 2.9. Not exciting, however, decent.
The rushes came in 2000. Helton opened the year with a 10-game hitting streak, started May 10 with the first of two professional three-homer games, and completed the month hitting .512/.588/1.000 with 11 homers in 102 PA.
He made his first All-Star group, and after setting up comparably computer game-like numbers in August (.476/.548/.848), Helton conveyed an in general .395/.484/.717 line into September, with more plate appearances (570) than George Brett had in 1980 (515), the year he completed at .390 in the wake of being over .400 as late as September 4. The public media paid heed to Helton's run at the mysterious imprint; in Sports Illustrated, Rockies administrator Buddy Bell and hitting mentor Clint Hurdle both contrasted Helton with Brett, with the previous saying, "Their energy, their hard-working attitude and their regard for the historical backdrop of the game are comparable."
Obstacle, a previous partner of Brett's who might oversee Helton from mid-2002 to mid-'09, made a close correlation, yet Helton, in typical style, dismissed the thought. From the New York Times' Ira Berkow:
"It is a charming swing," Hurdle said. "I'm helped to remember Don Mattingly or George Brett."
Helton said he realized individuals were dazzled with the beauty of his swing. "In any case, I don't see it," he said. "I watch movies and figure: 'That could be better. It wasn't just about as lovely as it felt.' And I watch movies of Brett, and think, 'Well that is an excellent swing.'"
Helton hit "just" .274/.370/.613 for September. However, he slammed seven homers in his last 11 games to get done with 42. His .372/.463/.698 line gave him the cut detail triple crown, similarly as Walker had done the prior year with a .379/.458/.710 line. In Colorado's high-scoring climate, his 163 OPS+ was only third in the association behind Barry Bonds (188) and Gary Sheffield (176), yet his 8.9 WAR was tops, similar to his 216 hits, 59 copies, 405 all out bases, and 147 RBIs.
Regardless, citizens limited his season, to some extent because of the Rockies' nonappearance from the postseason picture (however, their 82 successes denoted their only time over .500 from 1997-2006) and to some degree because of the Coors factor. Helton completed fifth in the NL MVP race behind Jeff Kent, Bonds, Mike Piazza, and Jim Edmonds. As was perpetually the situation, Helton improved at home (.391/.484/.758). However, his street numbers (.353/.441/.633) would have set second (by two, behind Moises Alou), first, and 6th, individually — still a monster season.
In March 2001, the Rockies marked Helton to a nine-year, $141.5 million augmentation — the fourth-biggest insignificant association history to that point, after those of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Manny Ramirez — covering the 2003-11 seasons. Helton's agreement outperformed that of new partner Mike Hampton, whom the group had endorsed to an eight-year, $121 million arrangement; that equivalent winter, the group marked Denny Neagle five-year, $51 million contracts. Luckily for the Rockies, Helton's agreement turned out a ton better than both of the two lefties' did. However, those are harrowing tales for one more day.
Helton's crude slice details tumbled off in 2001 (.336/.432/.685). However, with the class scoring rate dropping from 5.00 runs per game to 4.70, his 160 OPS+ was almost comparable to the earlier year, valid for seventh in the NL. He completed second in batting average, fourth in OBP and homers (49, a lifelong high, however miles behind Bonds' 73), and fifth in WAR (7.8). In addition to the fact that he made the All-Star group once more, he won his first Gold Glove. He kept on delivering at a comparable level throughout the following three seasons, hitting a joined .345/.452/.609 (159 OPS+) while averaging 32 homers, 194 hits, 112 strolls and 6.9 WAR. He put in the best five in OBP in each of the three years (second in both 2003 and '04) and OPS+ twice around there, and in the best 10 in WAR, with a high of fifth in 2004, with 8.3. He made three all-Star groups, running his streak to five in succession, and won Gold Gloves in the bookend years. Helton's 37.5 WAR for the five-year time frame from 2000-04 positioned third in the majors, behind just Bonds (51.2) and Rodriguez (43.5). However, the Rockies kept on going no place. Their 94 misfortunes in 2004 denoted their most noteworthy all out since their debut season in 1993. Late that season, they exchanged away Walker, who had missed 11 weeks because of a crotch strain.
Even though he drove the NL with a .445 on-base rate, the 31-year-old Helton's presentation took its first descending turn in 2005. He started the season in a funk, and in June, surrendered, "I've changed my position multiple times in 42 games. I haven't permitted myself an opportunity to see the baseball." Just as he was warming up in July, a left calf strain sent him to the Disabled List interestingly, finishing his dash of seven straight seasons within any event 152 games played (he arrived at the midpoint of 157 for the 1998-2004 range). However, he hit only 20 homers between his 144 OPS+ and 4.6 WAR (tied for fourteenth in the group). It was as yet an entirely decent season. As far as he might be concerned, in any event, the Rockies lost 95 games and had only one other standard with an OPS+ over 100.
An episode of intense terminal ileitis, severe irritation of the small digestive tract, sent Helton to the DL in April 2006, and his creation slipped to the most reduced levels of his vocation to that point (15 HR, 118 OPS+, 2.3 WAR). However, the Rockies improved to 76 successes. The core of a vastly enhanced group was meeting up. Good regulars, for example, left defender Matt Holliday, right defender Brad Hawpe, and third baseman Garrett Atkins helped support the offence. At the same time, local starters Aaron Cook, Jason Jennings, and Jeff Francis showed it was feasible to forestall runs at elevation. In late 2006, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, the group's first-round pick simply a year sooner, shown up and included another unique bat along with everything else, just as a great glove.
Even though he just homered once, Helton hit .384/.518/.500 in April 2007, strolling multiple times while striking out only five. He was unable to keep up that cut. However, he hit .320/.434/.494 with 17 homers, a 133 OPS+ and 4.5 WAR. The Rockies, who hadn't completed above the fourth spot in the NL West since some espresso 1997 season, were in fourth well into September. They were 76-72 on September 16, four and a half games back in the Wild Card, when Helton hit the 300th grand slam of his profession off the Marlins' Mauro Zarate as a component of a 13-0 defeat. After a scope of the Dodgers in a doubleheader two days after the fact, covered by Helton's stroll off homer off Takashi Saito, the two groups were tied for third. The Rockies at last extended their series of wins to 11 in succession and 13 of 14, pushing them to 89-73 after 162 games, attached with the Padres for the Wild Card.
In the Game 163 sudden death round, played in Colorado, Helton drove in two early runs with a fielder's choice and a performance homer, both off Jake Peavy. Yet, the game eventually went into extra innings. Scott Hairston's two-run homer in the highest point of the thirteenth pushed the Rockies to the edge, yet they revitalized against Trevor Hoffman with three straight extra-fair hits, tying the score. After Helton was deliberately strolled, Jamey Carroll's fielder's choice got back Holliday with the triumphant run, but on a play that is as yet questioned.
With the Rockies back at the end of the season games interestingly since 1995, Helton got his first taste of postseason baseball. He went only 4-for-26 in the Division and League Championship Series against the Phillies and Diamondbacks, individually, yet the Rockies cleared both. Helton made the last out of the NLCS using a toss from Tulowitzki on an Eric Byrnes grounder, pushing his hands heavenward for a memorable photograph representing the establishment's 14-year hang tight for a shot at the World Series.
While Helton went 5-for-15 with a couple of copies in the World Series against the Red Sox, the arrangement was terrible, brutish and short; the Rockies were cleared in four games, outscored 29-10.
Helton's 2008 was all around brief also. Having managed constant back issues since 2002, he started encountering leg issues. He was hitting just .266/.393/.391 with seven homers in 81 games when he was determined to have a degenerative plate toward the beginning of July. Actuated in September, he showed up and went through a medical procedure at month's end. Adequately solid to play 151 games the following year, he got back to frame (.325/.416/.489, 127 OPS+) while helping the 92-70 Rockies to another Wild Card billet, however, went only 3-for-16 in a Division Series misfortune to the Phillies.
In the spring of 2010, Helton and the Rockies revamped the last part of his uber contract (which incorporated a $23 million club alternative and $4.6 million buyouts for 2012) into an ensured bargain going through 2013, with more than $13 million conceded. His last four years weren't a lot to think of home about. While he hit for a 117 OPS+ and 2.2 WAR in 2011, he added up to 0.5 WAR in the other three seasons and oversaw only a 97 OPS+ for the four-year time frame. He made yearly excursions to the DL over that range, the most outstanding of which came in 2012, when he went through season-finishing a medical procedure to fix the labrum in his correct hip, trailed by a left knee meniscus fix.
Helton had one great imperfection before the beginning of his 2013 season. On February 6, he was captured for driving impaired and indiscreet driving while at the same time making a 2 a.m. excursion to the corner store in his truck, evidently to purchase lottery tickets. Through the Rockies, he delivered an articulation saying 'sorry' for his activities and "misguided thinking." Once he showed up at spring preparing, he gave a further conciliatory sentiment while calling the scene "a stupendous slip-up." After conceding to a charge of "driving while capacity hindered" (a lesser allegation, the differentiation of which would stay applicable), he got a fine of $400, a time of probation, and 24 hours of local area administration.
Helton's last season was shoddy by all accounts, however not without its features. On September 1, 2013, with the Rockies facilitating the Reds, he multiplied down the left-field line off reliever Curtis Partch for vocation hit number 2,500, the minor significant achievement of his profession. Play halted while the Coors Field horde of 30,594 allowed the 40-year-old first baseman extensive, stirring applause.
After fourteen days, not long before the Rockies' last homestand, Helton affirmed his arrangements to resign at season's end. He hit .342/.350/.658 with a couple of homers over his previous nine games at Coors, the second of them — alongside the 592nd twofold of his profession — falling off Peavy, at that point of the Red Sox, in his last beginning.
Helton's last years were not exceptionally gainful. However, they cushioned out his vocation details to deliver aggregates that aren't strange in a Hall of Fame conversation. No, he was undoubtedly not a 500-homer slugger, yet that is valid for 15 out of 21 cherished first basemen, regardless of whether two of the three latest inductees at the position, Frank Thomas (2014) and Jim Thome (2018), were. Moreover, for the 3,000 hit level, which only two of the 21 Hall first basemen have reached (three in case you're checking Carew, who for the reasons for JAWS is viewed as a second baseman). Certainly, Helton's sums of 369 homers and 2,519 hits are both over the middle among Hall first basemen.
From a rate-detail viewpoint, Helton was a lasting presence on the leaderboards, with seven top-five completions in batting normal and eight in on-base rate and driving the group in both in 2000. He was sprinter up in every class multiple times and had two other top-10 completions. Slugging speed-wise, he had four top-five completions and two more in the leading 10. In general, he's one of only 19 hitters within any event a .300 batting normal, .400 on-base rate, and .500 slugging rate in at any rate 7,000 vocation plate appearances; Thomas, Dan Brouthers, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Joey Votto are the others among first basemen.
One can't get excessively profound into such examinations without recognizing the effect of Helton's ballpark and the time in which he played. For his profession, Helton hit .345/.441/.607 with 227 homers in 4,841 PA at Coors Field and .287/.386/.469 with 142 homers in 4,612 PA out and about. His home OPS of 1.048 is the seventh-most elevated among players within any event 3,500 PA in such a unique circumstance:
Nineteen of the top 25 parts in home OPS are in the Hall of Fame. The rest other than Helton are either outside because of their connections to execution upgrading drugs (Bonds, Ramirez, and McGwire) or aren't yet qualified (Cabrera, Ortiz, and Holliday). It's nearly like exploiting one's home park is a vital component towards arriving at Cooperstown; in getting this table from a year ago's variant, I needed to make sure to add the Hall of Fame assignment.
Eight of the best 10 players there are Hall of Famers, however outside that, the rundown isn't as soaked with so many players as the first; numerous occupants of Coors Field, Fenway Park, or Wrigley Field spot the rundown. The issue for Helton is that we presently have devices to place this stuff into the setting, where electors of the past needed them, thus the lopsided degree to which players from the high-offence 1920s and '30s are cherished (thanks to a limited extent to the Frankie Frisch/Bill Terry Veterans Committees).
By OPS+, Helton doesn't stand apart very so much. For instance, he had five top-10 appearances in OPS+ (three of them in the best five), and his vocation characteristic of 133 is brilliant yet not world-beating. He trails 14 of the 21 revered first basemen and is attached with another (Orlando Cepeda) and positions last among the previously mentioned 19 .300/.400/.500 hitters, light focuses behind the two players tied for seventeenth, Walker and Chipper Jones.
Fortunately, if that is the awful information, Helton's life span merited something in this unique circumstance, even given his finish of-vocation battles. His 424 batting runs, the essential hostile part of WAR, is fifteenth among all first basemen; just nine in front of him are cherished. He's 33 runs better than the no-question Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, for instance, and 25 runs better than Fred McGriff. The qualification on the scholars' voting form of the latter terminated two years prior. He'd rank considerably higher had his last four years added up to more than a joined - 6 batting runs, yet them's the breaks.
By different parts of WAR, Helton was 14 runs sub-optimal in baserunning and 11 less than ideal in twofold play evasion, yet 76 better than expected with the glove, affirming his solid standing defender. Indeed, he's 10th unequalled there, with Roger Connor the lone Hall of Famer higher.
With all aspects of his game taken together, Helton's 61.8 profession WAR is attached with Votto for sixteenth among first basemen, 5.1 WAR beneath the norm, and under 11 of the 21 revered, including Bagwell, Thome, and Thomas, whose vocations covered with his. At the core of that complete is an impressive 12-year run, from 1998-2009, where his 59.2 WAR positioned seven in the majors behind A-Rod (90.9), Pujols (73.8, beginning in 2001), Bonds (71.0), Jones (64.5), Derek Jeter and Scott Rolen (both 59.6) — all Hall-type abilities, regardless of whether not every one of them will be chosen. Just beneath him are many others in that class, including Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones, Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero, and Ichiro Suzuki (with the poor start in 2001). That is a fantastic organization.
Helton's seven-year top WAR of 46.6 is more vigorous than his vocation mark, eleventh at the position and 3.9 successes over the norm; of the 10 players above him, just Bagwell and Pujols were counterparts, with the last the just one from that best 10 external the Hall. As far as JAWS, Helton's 54.2 is fifteenth with Murray, 0.6 beneath the norm and under 10 of the 21 enshrinees.
JAWS isn't planned to give a twofold yes/no, finish of-conversation answer to the subject of reverence, where above it you're in, underneath it you're out. Being inside one place of the norm, among the leading 15 at the general and — generally remarkable taking everything into account — determinedly over the pinnacle standard settles on Helton a sensible decision for Cooperstown. Indeed, his crude details were set up by Coors Field, swelling his Hall of Fame Monitor score to 175. Yet, the changes for park and alliance, and the incorporation of his cautious ability, reveals to us he was something beyond a mile-high illusion.
All things being equal, Helton is not a sure thing. When Tony La Russa's second capture for driving impaired is drawing examination inside the baseball business, it's significant that Helton added to his rap sheet. On March 18, 2019, he was referred to yet not captured on a charge of driving impaired in the wake of smashing his pickup truck into a utility pole in West Knox County, Tennessee. He told police he had taken an Ambien around four hours before the accident. However, had a cup in his vehicle that resembled liquor; he was taken for crisis clinical consideration. After seven days, he entered a private treatment program in East Tennessee. "He understands there are portions of his conduct that need to change, and he is centred around doing exactly that," said his lawyer, Stephen Ross Johnson, using an assertion. In April 2020, Helton confessed to "driving impaired as a first offence" (ahem) and was condemned to 48 hours in prison (which he quickly served), in addition to 11 months and 29 days of solo probation. Also, he was fined $350, his driver's permit was suspended for a year, and he was requested to go to a Victim Impact Panel.
At the point when Helton previously got qualified, I voiced my assumption that electors may consider him to be a marginal pick, someone to be considered for the keep going spot on the polling form; however, not an absolute necessity vote, and surrendered that my starter emergency put him there, as well, as I had more than 10 competitors viable for 10 spots on my virtual voting form. Around there, his case isn't typical for that of Andruw Jones, who positions eleventh among focus defenders, 3.2 focuses underneath the JAWS standard, however, 2.1 over the pinnacle standard, with a splendid 11-year run (1997-2007) trailed by an unpleasant conclusion. In Jones' initial two years on the polling form, he arrived in the 7-8% territory. Helton dramatically increased that, accepting 16.5% in his first year. With polling form space less of an issue a year ago, the two players posted critical additions, with Helton hopping 12.7%, 29.2%, and drawing notice from numerous electors as a player they would have included if they had more than 10 spots, recommending development potential.
Generally talking, he's not so great. Since BBWAA electors got back to yearly balloting in 1966, seven different players have gotten somewhere in the range of 26% and 34% in their second year of qualification, one of whom (Curt Schilling) is on this polling form. The leftover six were ultimately chosen, five by the scholars — however, they required a normal of eight extra years to make it, with Gary Carter and Luis Aparicio moving the most rapidly (four years) and Bruce Sutter the most gradually (11 years). Edgar Martinez, just one of the pack other than Schilling, whose qualification was shortened to 10 years by a 2014 guideline change, required every one of the eight leftover years to arrive. Schilling is near maximizing, as he's presently in his 10th year.
With Walker's political race having broken the seal on Rockies-related competitors and with a less jam-packed voting form, Helton has a real shot at the political race. However, apparently, his allies must stay for the long stretch. He will not face anything near a similar mash for space on the polling form as Walker did, yet his case additionally isn't precisely as solid. Somehow, this won't occur without any forethought.
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