Todd Helton - The Hall of Fame Case 

Error at 5:34: it should say 369 HR, NOT RBI

As a Millenial Dodger Fan, I’ve seen plenty of evidence of why Todd deserves to be in the HoF

Those 2000-2004 numbers proved he could hit away from Coors

The problem I have with people saying Coors Effect, is that Willie Mays, Mel Ott, John McGraw and Monte Irvin played in the polo grounds, and all of them are hall of famers

If stadiums determine hof cases then no Yankee or red sox player should be in the hof

A career .905 ops on the road from Walker is not just an "all star caliber" talent. Ken Griffey Jr had a career .860 road ops. Derek Jeter has a career .801 road ops. Miguel Cabrera has a career .900 road ops. Albert Pujols has a career .918 road ops. this essentially puts Larry Walker between Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols in road ops..... .905 is a FANTASTIC number for a full career. Other than that great video.

My favorite Colorado Rockies player ever. He should be in the hall of fame

Todd Helton was criminally underrated. He just happened to play in the era with the best 1st Baseman in MLB History. Jim Thome Mark Teixeira Fred McGriff Albert Pujols Prince Fielder Justin Morneau Adrian Gonzalez Carlos Pena Miguel Cabrera Derek Lee Carlos Delgado Paul Konerko Joey Votto Travis Hafner Ryan Howard Jason Giambi Etc.

I am a Dodgers fan and remember how much he scared me when he was at the plate. He deserves to be in.

I don’t like how the colors effect is used to say a player is worse than their stats show because it just implies that you can’t play on the rockies while also getting the credit you deserve as a very good player.

It’s a joke if Helton doesn’t make it to the hall of fame at one point

I think it’s dumb holding the Coors Field effect against some of these players, because why have a team in Colorado if the MLB and writers not gonna look at their team the same way as they do with other markets

Appreciate the shoutout! Lets get Todd Helton into the Hall of Fame!!

He was also Peyton Manning’s backup in college at Tennessee, and remains good friends with Peyton, who came to Helton’s last game in Denver in 2013

Use this as a "I'm rooting for Edwin Jackson" button.

As a lifelong Padres fan I remember Helton tearing the cover off of the ball at Petco Park on cold spring nights through the marine layer pretty damn often. Definitely deserves a spot in Cooperstown.

If I owned the Colorado Rockies, I’d construct a gigantic green monster... er, purple monster towering over the outfield so we can finally develop good pitching.

Playing at Coors Field also makes it harder to play away from the high elevation too so it evens out a bit and this isn't factored into OPS+ yet

I wonder if the reason we see such a difference between home and away stats for players in Colorado isn't just the air is thinner so the ball can travel farther, it's that when Colorado players are on the road the ball acts differently when it's being pitched and it is something they are not accustomed to seeing.

Lifelong Rockies fan, great video. I missed Helton's prime, but I got to enjoy seeing a lot of his career from 2006-2013 and he was always a joy to watch, especially in the 2007 run. Todd is just a Rockies icon, and while his power numbers are a little low for a first baseman, despite the Coors Field effect, I think he should get to the Hall eventually because of staying with one team, his career batting average, doubles and being one of the best of all time defensively at first base. The amount of errors he saved over the years by picking balls out of the dirt was invaluable.

Take a look at Mark Teixera’s case

This man caused anxiousness and uncertainty every time he came up to bat for us Dodgers fans. I think he did enough to merit a HOF induction. His numbers are excellent for his position and, like you said, he has a positive narrative that will help his case.

Helton was an elite talent. When the MLB began to require gameballs to be stored in a humidor, there was a steep decline in homers hit from Coors Field, yet Helton's numbers remained consistent. He deserves to be in the Hall.

Splits will always be tough for Rockies players. They play 81 games at Coors then the majority of their road games at ballparks in San Diego and San Francisco. Then they go to L.A. and face both Dodger stadium and Dodger pitching. I don't think you will find many divisions with that kind of disparity in the home team's ballpark situations.

I’d love to see you do a video on Paul Konerkos hall of fame case . Keep up the good work !

I am a Rockies fan so don’t take my words too seriously but the coors field effect can also be negative because it makes it harder to hit in away games than those who don’t play at coors field

When this briefly turned into a Nomar Garciapara video

The Coors Effect is slightly more complicated than just the altitude making balls fly further. In reality, the Coors Effect is multifold, and there are multiple reasons why Coors Field is a hitter friendly park. 1. Dry, cold Denver air dries out baseballs and makes them bounce off the bat harder. This has been at least somewhat mitigated since the introduction of the humidor. 2. Coors Field has the largest outfield in MLB, giving more chances for batted balls to find holes. 3. Due to the thin air, breaking balls break softer, giving the hitter an advantage at the plate.

TODDFATHER Also, so happy you made a rockies video. Nobody talks about them ever besides Arenado

Well put together as always. Keep it up

I forget which player said this but they said that the "Coor's Effect" gets canceled out because although your stats get a bump at home your body takes a hit because you're living at altitude. So playing at home is more exhausting for the Rockies than any other team. I had never heard that mentioned before but it makes perfect sense.

As a Rockies fan, the biggest advantage of coors isn’t how far the balls fly, but how large the outfield is to compensate. Home run numbers aren’t a huge outlier but batting average is

Another great in depth dive! I'm thinking in 3 or 4 more years he will get in

I have the same back condition and the fact that the man was able to play like that with degenerative disk disease blows my mind and automatically trumps anything a naysayer could argue against him in the HOF.

He deserves it. Staying with a team that sucks shouldn't hinder HoF chances. The HoF is for individuals and a championship isnt something players can control on am individual level. Also, enough with WAR and all these new stats. Baseball was perfect without these stupid new stats

I love being a jays fan, where rumors from toronto say everyone can be signed and then seeing top sources say that they are all going to the yankees or the red sox

Nomar was great, as a Sox fan.. I remember being so sad when he left and then so happy the next year when we won the World Series (but also a little sad he wasn’t on the team)

Having an OPS of over .850 for 10 straight seasons, having 100 or more rbis for 5 straight seasons, and having 30 or more home runs in 6 straight seasons, winning 3 gold gloves, and being a top 3 offensive player on a team that won a pennant is good enough for the hall of fame in my opinion. I might be wrong, but it seems like it would be harder to field at coors than anywhere else, even if you are playing first base, and while he did get to bat for half the season in Colorado, that shouldn’t automatically disqualify him from consideration.

When I think about baseball I think about his stretch in 2007 and him throwing his arms up in the air as a native Coloradan he is by far my favorite player, side note when he got his dui he took his truck to my uncles car shop to get the breathalyzer put in, I was there that day and he told me “you gotta explode through the ball” that was it but my confidence went through the roof that season

I remember Jake peavy grooved him a pitch in which Helton crushed. Always considered Helton and Adrian Gonzales as hofs! Both were special players

Todd Helton is absolutely a Hall of Fame player. Every positive Coors Field adds are also removed on the road. Outside of injuries and playoffs, the amount of games played at home are equal to on the road. And there isn’t a pitcher during Helton’s career who wasn’t absolutely terrified of number 17, home or away. Add is Helton’s superb defense, there is no question he is a deserving member of the Cooperstown. Besides high altitude doesn’t help put bat to ball.

Dude batted .372 BA with 42 hrs and 147 rbis in 2000 and .336 BA with 49 hrs and 146 rbis and in 2001 was 5th and 9th in mvp voting respectively. The steroid era was INSANE

The other Coors field effect people never talk about is how hard it is to play any sport at altitude. It takes longer to recover, you have less stamina, muscles get to their peek output faster, lung capacity is diminished, and a few other things I can't remember. The fact he performed as well as he did for as long as he did and still put up the number he did away from Denver is not only impressive but I dare anyone to play a whole season of any sport at altitude and say it was easier, because it's not. He got in finally and deservedly so just crazy people only talk about the benefits of playing there and say nothing about the negatives.

Love videos like this I'm a huge, big hall of fame guy and helton fits perfectly into that

As a Rockie fan, if people are gonna hold Coors field against our hitters, then hold Kershaw responsible for pitching in Dodgers stadium and all the other great pitchers for pitching in a pitcher park. I need that same energy!

wait, if we should put a discount on great hall of fame stats coming out of hitter parks, should we add value to an all star caliber career in pitcher parks?

Considering how advanced stats have placed some HOF candidates under a different light, how as you mentioned Larry Walker slowly rose in percentage of votes because of this, I suggest you could do a video on a similar, fascinating pitching case - Bert "Be Home" Blyleven.

Wow. Kerry Wood's rookie year was crazy. 233 strikeouts in only 166 innings. Jeez.

I always thought of him as a fantastic hitter, regardless of the added carry of Coors. Dude averaged a 12%K rate for his career while slugging .540. He just put solid wood on everything he touched, not his fault he played in Denver.

The main issue I have with the HOF is the insistence on ONLY taking into account career-long statistics and totally ignoring notable season-long ones. If you have one amazing year in which you drag an otherwise so-so team to glory, break records, smash expectations... I don't care what the rest of your career looks like. If you did this, you blew the world away, you made kids MLB fans for life, you became a household name and you did what 99% of MLB players could barely dream of. I don't care if you hit the league average for your first 6 seasons, your last 6 seasons, and retired injured before your 14th season. If your 7th season rocked the world, that's all that should matter. You did what was needed, when it was needed. Heck... what's the point in the frankly flabergasting 162 game season, if it's not there to mean that a season filters out flash-in-the-pan anomalies? If you scored goals in every match in 2 World Cups, then that's only 16 goals... but you also took a country to incredible, world stunning glory and no one could say you weren't amazing.

Totally deserves to be in the hall. I followed his entire career same as walker and I believe he will be in the hall eventually.

Great video if you keep grinding you and your eating will definitely get noticed

He deserves a hof tbh

Absolutely he should be in the HOF with a lifetime .316 batting average.

Even away from Coors Field, Todd Helton's best was better than a lot of player's best. It's so fascinating to see such a complete player. Honestly, his problem is career longevity. If his career lasted a bit longer, there'd be almost no question about his HoF case.

Edwin Jackson: one of two inaugural inductees in the all-sports Hall of Journeyman (HOJ), along with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Dodgers fan here. He should be in the HoF.

Small note Helton isn’t the only number retired by the Rockies walker did technically get his number retired but there hasn’t been an official ceremony because of covid

People talk about votto as a just shy player But his career WAR is 1 below the threshold for the “average” HOF 1B. Meaning many people below him are in it. The average is also raised by the outliers (goats like Gehrig). He is also still active

Do Konerko next!!!

The thing about home vs. away splits is that virtually every player in virtually every major team sport does better at home than they do on the road. It's a product of sleeping in their own bed, eating their own wife's cooking, driving their own car, and just being all-around more relaxed at home than when jet lagged on the road. It's why home field/ice/floor/stadium advantage is always talked about as having such importance. So those kind of splits really mean very little.

Back here after Helton just got inducted

Why don’t the Rockies just move the walls of the outfield back to compensate for the altitude? Am I crazy or does this make sense and fix everything.

He should definitely be in the hall of fame

Carlos Delgado I think should be in the hall of fame 473 home runs so close to 500! Also David wright his injuries ruined his career but was 7 time all star and missed basically 4 years

would have been nice if you touched on the disadvantage rockies players play with on the road. Constantly adjusting how much pitches break. Simply looking at rockies road numbers is not an accurate portrayal of their production.

As a Cardinals fan, I saw all of the evidence that Helton is a god tier first baseman. He hit like 450 for his career against us and regularly pulled fuckery at first base (ex: tricking Matt Carpenter into thinking he didn’t have the ball, when he did)

Please do Bobby Grich!

Fucking legend. This man was my hero as a child

Would love to see a look at Dustin Pedroias career

Please do Don Mattingly.

My first baseman on mlb the show 20

Todd should be in the Hall

The HoF voters should note though that a guy like DJ LeMahieu who was a Rockie for the first 6 years of his career become a beast in Yankees stadium which while hitter friendly isn't a hitter friendly as Coors' Field

Has a Rockies fan for their entire existence I will say he was never my favorite first baseman that would be Andres galarraga, but I appreciate everything helton did for the Rockies and yes he deserves it

You may have learned that Nomar Garciaparra was better than you thought. And I learned that Todd’s swing was BUTTER man! I’m pretty young so he was a little before my time but his swing is up there with Griffey imo

Yes

like how is people like ray schalk in the HOF? He batted .254 and 11 homers in his whole career.

Easy yes from a Big Hall guy, both on statistical merit and “Fame.” An iconic Rockies player. Huge logjam of worthy names and overlooked legends, but I’d gladly argue for him.

It’s close, but I do think he should be in the HOF. He was a great hitter in his prime, even accounting for his playing at Coors.

Soriano got snubbed. And as a Red Sox fan talking about a Yankee this confuses me. Please make a video on him.

Compete 1st Baseman getting in with the media ignoring him in Colorado makes his HOF induction an uphill battle

If he played in a larger market he'd already be in. The "Coors effect" is way overrated; home road split discrepancies are explained more by how hard it is to transition from altitude back to sea level. Pitches move differently at 5000ft than they do at 800 ft. Ask Blackmon or Arenado.

Only about 20 players have a career slash line over .300/.400/.500 and with the exception of Manny and Shoeless Joe all the others are in the HOF, therefore Todd Helton belongs, period. Also, if playing at mile high altitude is such an 'advantage', how come the Rockies' line ups are not loaded with .300 hitters and sluggers hitting 40 HR per year ??? He and Larry Walker were the only ones playing there with HOF caliber stats, something that speaks volumes about their talent.

Please do jimmy rollins next

The same people who judge Rockies players because of coors field, they end up praising the Yankees and Red Sox, if the Rockies don’t make it, neither should any Yankees or Red Sox players, it’s stupid how just because they are an older team everyone let’s those things fly, but judges Colorado players

The Coors Effect really only matters with home runs. Take away his homers, and Helton still has 2200 hits and a .316 career BA.

Yes....

I don’t think many players that played for Colorado will ever make it to the Hall. Unfair too.

The cream will always rise to the top, Helton will get in, he is too great of a hitter not to be. Look at Edgar Martinez, just as great of a hitter, but the DH thing held him out for a while. Team loyalty of Edgar and Helton are similar too.

When talking about the Coors Effect you cant show only one side of it. When spending short periods of time between the different levels it effects the players bodies when they play on the road. It is not that they are worse on the road it is that their body is adjusting to the different atmospheric pressure. Trevor Bauer got into this with Blackmon and Daniel Murphy where they talk about the effect that it has on them. There is as much negative to your stats by playing there as the positive. This why you do a disservice to Rockies players by not looking at the blended stats.

Todd Helton was a great hitter period. One of the more respected players of the game. He put up great numbers. And should have been the mvp in 2000. He led the NL in everything offensive. And still came in 5th. He was robbed of the award. They gave it to Jeff Kent that year. Todd never got the respect that year.

You should review Berkman’s. I’m not sure if he’s HoF, but he got snubbed off the ballot pretty early IMO

I’m sick of people getting shut out of Cooperstown based on hypotheticals. Let’s look at what actually happened and stop muddying the waters with maybes and might have beens? The man raked. Pure and simple. Algorithmic saber stats be damned. There is no convincing me that an algorithm is objective.

Also you need to make a video about Keith Hernandez if you haven’t.. he pops up in so many of these videos

I just dont see any sluggers getting into the hall of fame with less than 400 career home runs, unless they were great average hitters who hit many doubles. But yeah, Coors Field pre-2010 cannot be denied of its effect. Thats why you gotta see their road numbers as well.

60 WAR is impressive HOF level and other player have cases with lower WARs as well like Catchers fir instance

Jason Kendall - The Hall of Fame Case

If he stayed hitting 25+ homes run a season, he would be a no doubt Hall of Famer, which gives him probably 450-500 HRs

the Coors field affect? How is it that we only say this about guys who have successful careers or spend about 5 years or so playing Denver? Does that say that everyones numbers should be factored by "X" for every person that hits in Denver? Todd Helton was a beast and would have raked anywhere but because he has an asterisk by his name. It is BS