I’m going to go on my annual rant about the All-Star Game albeit somewhat less harsh. This game is at a crossroads. What is it really and what has it become? Historically the All-Star Game was created to offer some excitement during the Great Depression.

No fewer than 19 future Hall of Famers participated. The game was played for league pride with six of the National League’s starters playing the whole game while seven of the AL’s did. Six pitchers were used with Lon Warneke toiling the most innings – four. By the way, the American League won 4-2 at Comiskey Park.

The game has evolved into a four day showcase with the game almost being anti-climactic. The Fanfest is worthwhile but the Home Run Derby is superfluous commercially fueled nonsense. So who should be chosen the play in the game? If it is for the casual fans, who vote for the starters and want entertainment then it should be a showcase for the best players who may not be having the best years, like Ryan Howard. But if it’s to reward those players having great years, then it should include Joey Votto.I happen to fall in the latter category. Otherwise, worthy players like Votto would never be chosen as long as Howard and Pujols are playing.

The new rules, as usual, are absurd, like no longer allowing chosen starting pitchers to play if they pitched on the prior Sunday. What, these guys can’t pitch two innings max? Expanding the rosters to 34 so that the are more pitchers is also mindless.

What they haven’t addressed is the archaic rule that each team must have at least one representative. That, too, impedes worthy players.

The managers are more concerned about getting everyone into the game so the players you really want to see will probably be out by the 6th inning. That’s for the players’ benefit, not the fans. It seems like there is more intensity in the game because of the home team award, but this, too, is a distraction.

Now for the rosters. This is one of those rare years where everybody – the fans, players, managers and League office got it almost right. One pleasant development was the naming of Arthur Rhodes to the NL Team and Matt Thornton in the AL. It’s about time good effective relievers besides closers are included and here’s hoping even more are picked next year. Then there were the puzzling decisions. Perhaps the most surprising was Charlie Manuel’s choice of Omar Infante. That’s a head scratcher.

And of course, the annual snubs. This year it’s the exclusion of American League pitchers Jered Weaver and Andy Pettitte, especially Weaver (8-3/2.82/1.06 WHIP) since the game is at Angels’ Stadium. Now some will say that the Yankees shouldn’t have three starters on the team but who do you exclude (Philip Hughes 10-2/3.83, CC Sabathia 10-3/3.33 or Pettitte 10-2/2.82)? If that means that Fausto Carmona doesn’t make it so be it. Besides Votto in the NL, the biggest insult was not naming any San Diego pitcher to the team! Mat Latos (9-4/2.62) and Clayton Richard (6-4/2.74) surely deserve to go as does closer Heath Bell who was vanquished to the final team member public vote.

Baseball has been transformed from an idyllic game with a rich heritage to nothing more than any other sport: a form of entertainment with contests, loud music, sausage races and between inning ads. How I long for the days of just going to watch a good game without the odious activities designed to keep fans engaged.

Jered Weaver Has Been Snubbed

This one’s for the Elias Sports Bureau. I can’t recall a season where teams have called up used their top prospects so early in the season. No fewer than 12 teams either have called up or broke camp with these future stars.

Here is the illustrious list:

Jason Heyward           Atlanta

Brian Matusz             Baltimore

Starlin Castro            Chicago Cubs

Carlos Santana         Cleveland

Mike Stanton           Florida

Jason Castro            Houston

Alcides Escobar       Milwaukee

Jennry Mejia           New York Mets

Pedro Alvarez         Pittsburgh

Buster Posey          San Francisco

Neftali Perez           Texas

Stephen Strasburg Washington

Mejia has since been sent down but most of the others are having solid years, except Escobar was given the shortstop job in spring training and has been struggling at both the plate and the field.

As good has some have been, however, none deserve to be on the All-Star Team, Fans game or not, Heyward is hitting in the .260’s and Strasburg, as good as he has been, has started all of six games.

Stephen Strasburg...Not This Year

Related posts:

1. The Japanese All-Star Series
2. Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 3 (1990-2008)
3. Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 2 (1960-1989)

Image via Wikipedia

Last week we saw the retirement of one of the truly elite talents in baseball history and one of the most dominant players that played in my (and every other ~23 year old’s) generation.  Ken Griffey Jr. was my first favorite baseball player, the first guy that I would wait to watch on Sports Center and the first (and only) guy that I went out of my way to collect baseball cards for.  As a matter of fact, I still have a box of his cards in my closet.  This got me to thinking about some of the greats that have recently retired (Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz – unofficially, Frank Thomas, Randy Johnson, Jeff Kent, Bonds – still great despite his steroid cloud, Mussina, etc.) and some of the guys who are close to calling it quits.  It is just a funny feeling for me seeing guys like these wind down their careers and fade away into the game’s background.  These are guys who I admired and sought on my fantasy squads not all that long ago, yet here they are, today, with rapidly waning fantasy relevance – if not non-existent.  Here’s the All-”My Generation” Team.  Guys who as recently as 2004 had fantasy significance, but are now at the point in their careers where they need to step aside for the new wave of talent.

C – Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez
1999 – .332/.356/.558, 35 HR, 113 RBI (AL MVP)

Is it at all possible that Pudge’s offensive achievements fly under the radar?  Not likely I hope, but that is just how good his defense was/is.  Defensive ability is not normally a factor that comes into play when talking fantasy baseball, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the guy has 13 Gold Gloves.  Obviously, there was plenty to like about his bat as well.  He had his share of injuries that took out a decent chunk of his prime years, but he still played 140+ games five times which is impressive considering he was playing those games in Texas and Florida.  The buzz these days has him making the transition into the managerial ranks.

Passing the Torch: Joe Mauer, Matt Weiters, Buster Posey (if he remains at C), Carlos Santana, Jesus Montero

1B – Todd Helton
2000 – .372/.463/.698, 42 HR, 147 RBI

It is hard to believe that Helton did not take home some MVP hardware with a season like that.  In fact, he didn’t finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th.  Regardless, his 2000 season was a representation (a very loud one) of the type of player he was for much of his career.  Coors Field, pre-Humidor, certainly inflated those numbers a bit, but that is something that fantasy ballers should have taken into consideration on draft day.  Coors effect or not, Helton was a dream to have on your squad.  He had HR power, was a doubles machine, drew more walks than strikeouts in his career and had 10 seasons batting .320 or better.

Passing the Torch: Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Justin Smoak

2B – Luis Castillo
2000 – .334/.418/.388, 62 SB

Castillo will not send fantasy managers into a nostalgic frenzy, but he is a guy who played an important role as a SB specialist for several years.  Power was absent from his game, but his ability on the base paths was a valuable asset to many fantasy owners who missed out on the power options in the middle infield.  In addition to the 369 swipes he has accumulated in his career, he has also batted .291 and on-based at a .368 clip.

Passing the Torch: Gordon Beckham, Rickie Weeks, Martin Prado, Chris Getz (future SB specialist?)

3B – Chipper Jones
1999 – .319/.441/.633, 45 HR, 110 (NL MVP)

Oh yeah, Jones tossed in 25 stolen bases during his MVP campaign as well.  Unfortunately, Jones has really struggled with injuries since 2004, but that should not keep him out of the Hall.  Jones, like Helton (and a lot of the guys that will end up on this list), was everything you can ask for as an anchor for a fantasy lineup.  Again, the injuries may keep him from reaching the 500 HR plateau, but that does not take away from the superior power/patience/batting average package that Jones provided.

Passing the Torch: David Wright, Evan Longoria, Ryan Zimmerman

SS – Miguel Tejada
2004 – .311/.360/.534, 34 HR, 150 RBI

Another doubles machine, Tejada ushered in the 2nd wave of offensive minded shortstops that followed Jeter, A-Rod and Nomar.  One of the most impressive stats of Tejada’s career that is sure to fall a bit under the radar is his six straight seasons (2001-2006) of playing 162 games.  Of course, fans in Baltimore were not impressed by that streak, but you can’t win in fantasy baseball when your studs don’t play.

Passing the Torch: Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Stephen Drew, Yunel Escobar

OF – Manny Ramirez

2000 – .351/.457/.697, 38 HR, 122 RBI

Nice season, huh?  He only played 118 games.
OF – Vladimir Guerrero
2002 – .336/.417/.593, 39 HR, 111 RBI, 40 SB

What needs to be said about a season like this?  It is not very often you come across guys who can provide power and speed in surplus while walking (84) more than he strikes out (70).

OF – Bobby Abreu
2004 – .301/.428/.544, 30 HR, 105 RBI, 40 SB

Abreu produced several seasons similar to 2004, but was always a guy who was slept on.  He has been a very solid player throughout his career, but has not received the same type of star treatment that others in his class received.

Manny and Vlad have been two of the most feared sluggers in baseball over the past decade and a half.  The two are only portions of themselves today, but every now and then you can still see them turn back the clock and show off the type of talent that made them perennial first rounders in fantasy drafts.  Abreu is not quite in their class, but that is not to say that he was not a great contributor in his prime as well.  One of the most balanced players, he would provide speed, power, score runs, drive in runs and draw 100+ walks per season.  Each of these guys was a fantasy stud and simply having one of them to serve as a pillar of a lineup was a good start.  In 2004, I actually had all three in my outfield.  Imagine that.

Passing the Torch: Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Andre Ethier, Carlos Gonzalez, Jason Heyward, Mike Stanton

SP – Pedro Martinez

1999 – 23-4, 213.1 IP, 2.07 ERA, 313 K (Cy Young)

SP – Greg Maddux
1995 – 19-2, 209.2 IP, 1.63 ERA, 181 K (Cy Young)

1995 was only his fourth consecutive Cy Young.

I cheated a little bit considering Martinez is the only one who is still “active”, but its tough not to give it up for these guys.  Maddux was different from the other guys in that he utterly dominated with command, movement and craftiness.  Any “soft tosser” that can make fantasy managers excited deserves some props.  It would be nice if I could find something to say about the dominance achieved by Pedro and the “Big Unit”, but I think their career numbers speak for themselves.  They are simply staggering.  John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina, Tom Glavine and a handful of others that could make a case to be on this list as well.

Passing the Torch: Tim Lincecum, Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson, Tommy Hanson, Jon Lester, Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg

RP – Trevor Hoffman
1998 – 53 S, 1.48 ERA, 86 K

Hoffman has been one of the best closers in the game for the past 15 years or so.  The most unbelievable thing about his career is that he has walked the road to immortality with one main weapon – a change-up.  He has struggled this season for the first time in my baseball watching days and he currently sits four saves away from 600.  Closers and saves are always a polarizing topic in fantasy circles, but there really was nothing to debate when it came to evaluating Hoffman’s value and contribution to fantasy staffs.

Passing the Torch: Joe Nathan, Jon Papelbon, Jonathan Broxton, Neftali Feliz, Daniel Bard

Stars have been coming and going for generations, but the guys I touched on above are interesting to me because I have had the privilege of watching these guys excel in their prime and now I watch them as they play in the twilight of their career.  This is the first time in my recollection that such a large wave of future Hall of Famers has hung up the cleats in a relatively close period of time.  As one generation of great talent writes the final chapters of their careers, the best is yet to come for much of the new wave of talent that has been infused into the league.

Story of the Week

Top prospects getting the call.  Stephen Strasburg and Michael Stanton made their highly anticipated debuts last night.  At this point, there is not really anything for me to say that has not been said by anyone and everyone from seam-heads to the casual fan and even those who do not even particularly like baseball.  Interestingly, the top three prospects according to Baseball America will reside in the NL East.  We have already seen Jason Heyward get off to a nice start with the Atlanta Braves.  The toughest thing about the promotions of Strasburg and Stanton will be for fans and fantasy managers to temper their early expectations.  More often than not, even the most highly touted prospects struggle early on in their careers.  Ensuing struggles or not, it is very exciting to have these two phenoms set to kick off what we can only hope are long and productive MLB careers.

Players to Watch

Ryan Doumit, C – Doumit has been taking grounders at 1B in anticipation of future PT there when he does not catch.  This does not necessarily mean that he will be any better of a hitter than he already is or that his tepid trade value will heat up.  HOWEVER, one important thing to consider will be having a catcher in your lineup every day.  After you get past the top two or three tiers of catchers, the next best thing is a solid bat that will get lots of ABs and provide value by volume.  Doumit is particularly intriguing because he is a guy who still has some potential that he could tap into.  Keep an eye on this situation.

Luke Hochevar, SP – I don’t expect Hochevar to contribute to the success of fantasy squads anytime really soon – maybe not even this year.  I do think he is a guy that people will want to stash in the back of their minds.  His electric arm was on display in his most recent start against Detroit in which he struck out 10 Tigers in seven innings.  I like his stuff a lot and I think he is a guy who can emerge as a very solid producer before too terribly long.

Andrew Cashner, Tanner Scheppers, RP – Neither one will factor into save opportunities in 2010, but electric bullpen arms are always a helpful commodity down the stretch in H2H leagues.  Cashner offers a little bonus in that he has SP eligibility.  Seeing that both are rookies (in Schepper’s case, he’s still a minor leaguer), there is a safe chance that fantasy managers don’t receive much in the way of consistency let alone dominance.  They are both still worth keeping tabs on though.

Related posts:

1. Pre 2010 Fantasy Baseball Predictions at the Mid-Way Point
2. Early 2011 Fantasy Baseball Value Plays
3. Future Baseball Studs And A Fantasy Round Up

Bob Breitbard died last week at the age of 91.  He was a legend in the San Diego sports community.  Founder of the NBA’s San Diego Rockets, and also the Gulls hockey franchise, but he was most known for his love of all sports.  Mr. Breitbard founded the Breitbard Athletic Association in 1946 to honor local high school, amateur and professional athletes. The association later spawned the Breitbard Hall of Fame, which was housed at the San Diego Hall of Champions, which he opened in Balboa Park in 1961.

When I walked into his office, he handed me a bat.  Actually he handed me THE bat.  The actual bat that Ted Williams used to hit .406 in 1941.

Mr. Breitbard loved to sit in his office and talk sports, especially about his love for his childhood friend Ted Williams.  What always impressed me, besides his knowledge, was his love and passion for sports.  Other than the “bat”, he had an office full of pictures and memorabilia.  He didn’t collect these items as an “investment”, as many people do,  he collected them because he had a true love of sports and for the athletes that played them.

While creating my art (www.baseballcardart.com) I’m constantly coming across people who ask me if what I do with my cards hurts their value.  I guess if you collect cards as an “investment” then what I do with them might make you cringe a little (although I haven’t actually seen anyone do that) but if you collect cards, or just love the sport of baseball and everything that goes with it, you’ll appreciate the final results.

I was very happy to know Mr. B. and was honored that he liked my baseball card pictures enough to want some of them to hang in his museum.  We sat together and talked about the Padres pieces (he was friends with Tony Gwynn, too) and he loved talking about the Red Sox jersey that I gave him.  His knowledge of players impressed me a lot.

The next time you’re in San Diego, try to stop at the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park, where you can see the very first picture I created (the Tony Gwynn piece) as well as an amazing collection of sports memorabilia, from a man who truly loved sports on every level.

No news on what is going to happen to Ted Williams’ bat, but I know the man that would hand it to you when you walked into his office will be missed…

Related posts:

1. A Baseball Card Artist: What he Does & Why
2. Andre Dawson: 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee
3. A Case for a Baseball Hall of Fame Induction

I couldn’t find a video of the show’s into, but after this two part video you’ll find a third which consists of the closing theme (but from another show).

This was one of my favorite shows growing up and Ozzie Smith is my All Time Favorite SS!

Here’s a picture of the Bunch with Hall of Famer Johnny Bench and The Chicken

Part 1 with Ozzie Smith, aka The Wizard of OZ!

Part 2 with Ozzie Smith

Aside from the scrolling text, this was the closing clip for every show!

As an added bonus, here’s an interview done a few years ago with some members of the Bunch some 25 years later…

Related posts:

1. A Case for the Creation of Baseball in Pittsfield, MA from 1791
2. Akadema’s Prodigy Series Youth Baseball Gloves
3. A Case for a Baseball Hall of Fame Induction

Belated Congratulations

On Wednesday, January 6th, OF Andre “Hawk” Dawson, in his 8th year of eligibility (starts 5 years after retirement) was the sole player inductee into the 2010 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Career Highlights

21 seasons
2627 Games Played

Rookie of the Year in 1977
NL MVP in 1987

.983 Fielding %
.279 BA
438 HR
1591 RBI
2774 Hits
314 SB

4 Silver Sluggers
8 All Star games
8 Gold Gloves

Received MVP votes in 9 seasons

If you ask me, the Hawk was a very deserving selection, but there were also others. Who those others are is for another article. This one is for the Hawk!

Hint: look back into this week’s posts to see one of those “others”…

Related posts:

1. A Case for a Baseball Hall of Fame Induction
2. Hall Of Very Good HOF Chat/Discussion Tonight!
3. Is Jorge Posada Hall of Fame Bound?

Anyone who has followed my writing closely from the start or who happens to know me personally should know that I am a HUGE Ozzie Smith fan! His Cardinals number is on my HS class ring as my favorite position to play in HS was SS. So, when I found out that he worked in conjunction with Akadema I got excited…then I found out it was to design a kid’s glove series (ages 9-13). That’s cool and all, but I wanted an Ozzie Smith design of my own…oh well.

Anyway, back to the gloves…

Even though Christmas is over, baseball season is right around the corner! Spring Training starts in about six weeks and little leagues (depending on what part of the country you live) can’t be too far behind. So, if you know a young all star in need of a new glove designed by an All Star Hall of Famer, then you need to follow the links provided and purchase your little gold glover a Prodigy Glove by Ozzie Smith and Akadema! You’ll be glad you did!

The Reptilian

The AOZ 91 : 11.25″ Youth Reptilian®.  B-hive web, open back with Grasp Clasp System, deep pocket.  Ozzie Smith Signature Glove.  Akadema’s Prodigy Design Series has quickly gained a reputation as the benchmark in quality and design for serious youth ballplayers.  Made with a combination of Akadema’s US Steerhide and exclusive AkademaLyte leather, the Prodigy Design Series is both light and durable.  Hand-crafted for a quick and easy break-in period, the Prodigy Design Series also uses the Akadema Grasp Clasp wrist system, making the glove more manageable for today’s youth ballplayer.

Related posts:

1. The Wizard of Oz, Ozzie Smith on The Baseball Bunch
2. Akadema’s Praying Mantis Catcher’s Mitt, Designed by Hall of Famer Gary Carter
3. Product Review: Akadema’s ProSoft 1B Mitt: AJJ 254

Why haven’t the BBWAA elected the closer with the third highest saves total with 478? The only two guys ahead of him are still playing (Hoffman and Rivera) and former inductees whom are below him on the list are Eckersley, Fingers, Gossage, Sutter and Wilhelm. The next closest player is John Franco and he played longer than him and he bests Franco with 54 more saves and bests Eckersley by 88.

His career ERA was 3.03, he finished 802 games with a SO/9 ratio of 8.7which factors out to being 1251 K’s in 1289.1 innings pitched. To go along with that he was in 7 All Star games, got MVP and Cy Young Award votes in 4 years.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about former closer Lee Smith!

What do you think about the possible induction of Lee Smith into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Related posts:

1. A Case for the Creation of Baseball in Pittsfield, MA from 1791
2. Andre Dawson: 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee
3. Is Jorge Posada Hall of Fame Bound?

Below you will find an event reminder to The Hall of Very Good’s Live Chat Tonight at 9pm CST (that’s 10pm EST, 8pm MST and 7pm PST). Once there you can debate for and against the players on the 2010 Hall of Fame ballot. I hope to see you there tonight!

Related posts:

1. Bob Breitbard and the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park
2. Listen to Me Tonight on Pro Rumors TV
3. Andre Dawson: 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee

Jorge Posada has played for the Yankees since 1995, and started since 1998.  He is a popular player, and as he approaches the end of his career, some noise is being made about electing him to the Hall of Fame.  But does he deserve it?  Is Jorge Posada a future Hall of Famer?

Teams, and by extension fans, evaluate all players based on how well they contribute to the team’s success.  Contributions to the team fall into two categories:  offense and defense.  Let’s look at some of Posada’s numbers, in comparison with catchers already enshrined in the Hall.

Let’s start with OPS+.  Here’s a list of the catchers in the HOF, sorted by OPS+, and where Posada falls on the list.

Note:  3 Negro League catchers – Josh Gibson, Biz Mackey, and Louis Santop -  are also in the HOF, but no statistical data for them is currently available, at least not at baseball-reference.com.  I would be interested in learning where data on them could be found on-line.

Posada’s career OPS+ is 124, which falls in the lower third in the above table. However, since most of the catchers in the Hall had career marks between 124-129, based just on OPS+ Posada has a case for enshrinement.

Hitting is only one part of the puzzle.  Baseball games are won by the team that scores more runs, so perhaps some sort of run production metric should also be used.  Runs Produced (RBI+R-HR) would fit the bill.

Buck Ewing did not appear on the list I generated at baseball-reference.com, which encompassed players who played half their games at catcher.  Posada currently sits in the bottom half of HOF catchers for runs produced, but is just short of being right in the middle. So after two metrics, he’s definitely worth considering based solely on his offensive output.

The last aspect of his game we need to look at is defense.  Quantifying the defensive abilities of catchers seems to be one of the last frontiers of sabermetric analysis; I found a fair amount of articles on theory of how to measure good catchers from bad, and some numerical examples, but one must comb through databases at one of several sites to develop refined data to evaluate.  I did find some finished analysis pieces, however, and referenced that work below.

First, there’s a paper by Jim Weigand on rating catchers arms.  He based his yearly arm leader board on 2000 outs (or roughly 80 games played), and his career arm leader board on 20000 outs (or roughly 10 years of 80 games played at catcher per year).  Posada made the yearly cut from 1998-2007, and has enough outs to qualify for the career board. Weigand used data available from 1954-2008, because that’s as far back as the data he had access to went, which means most HOF catchers were left off or had their careers not fully covered. Those who had part of their careers included in this data base (Campanella and Berra as two prominent examples) were left out of the table; I didn’t want to evaluate Posada against part of a HOF career.

For those players whose careers started after 1954, and are in the HOF, here are the numbers:

There were 91 total entries on Weigand’s career list.  You’ll note Posada falls in the bottom 15% of all catchers evaluated.

There are a couple of other good articles on methodologies to evaluate catcher defense, and I’ll mention two:  One by Justin Inaz, and one by some dude named devil_fingers over at Driveline Mechanics.  Then, there’s the work Tom Tango’s done on the subject as well.

As I began to try and evaluate Posada against the HOF catchers, I quickly realized I’d bitten off much more than I can chew and get this done in a reasonable amount of time.  I made a command decision and decided to shift the analysis, looking at how Posada rated against his peers in the league. Using the data presented at the first two links in the preceding paragraph, we can at least look at Posada’s defensive numbers for 2007 and 2009.  Note that two similar, but slightly different, methodologies were used to arrive at these conclusions.

2007 (Inaz):  Posada ranked 33 out of 42 catchers evaluated.

2009 (Driveline):  Posada ranked 109 out of 114 catchers evaluated.

In fairness, these two seasons represent the 10^th and 12^th full season Posada’s caught in the Majors (assuming 80 games as a full season, in line with Mr. Weigland’s thoughts).  He’s now 38, meaning these are seasons after he passed his physical peak, so he may have been a better defensive catcher earlier in his career.

That said, there’s a fair amount of evidence indicating Posada has not been, and is not now, a very good defensive catcher, both when compared against those already in the HOF, and when compared to contemporaries in the majors.

Does his defensive liability torpedo his HOF resume?  Not necessarily, but it should give the voters pause.  Posada certainly is a very good hitting catcher, and has the numbers to merit consideration for enshrinement; but his all-around game should be considered, and he doesn’t appear stack up against the greats defensively.

So going back to the original question:  Does Jorge Posada deserve to be in the HOF? No when the whole player is evaluated, but he’ll probably get in just because of his bat.

Related posts:

1. Andre Dawson: 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee
2. A Case for a Baseball Hall of Fame Induction
3. How MLB Expansion Has Affected Hall of Fame Voting

Amidst the ups and downs of playing for a small-medium market club for your

On July 22, Todd Helton became the fastest MLB player to reach 500 doubles in a career.  There have only been 49 players to previously reach the mark and 46 of them are in the Hall of Fame.  Craig Biggio, Edgar Martinez and Pete Rose are the only players from the 500 Double club to not currently be in the Hall.  Both Biggio and Martinez are not eligible yet and Rose of course is ineligible at this time.  To me this makes this club one of the most prestigious in baseball history and to be the fastest player to reach it in history is a remarkable feat. All the numbers prove that Helton should be the first Colorado Rockies player to be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the era we are in today with all the acquisitions of performance enhancing drugs being used, Helton has managed to by pass all of them.  Although some remarks were made of Helton in 2007, nothing was proven.  Sure his power numbers dipped a little bit throughout the years but he also was sidelined with a pretty serious back injury which could have contributed to the decline of those stats.

The Rockies made a remarkable run in 2007 and are in the hunt for the wild card this year.  Todd has provided this team and franchise with much needed leadership and has proved to be the greatest Colorado Rockies player to date.

Throughout the years in town Helton has battled many trade rumors and skeptics.  And although the owners have managed to rid themselves of high priced players throughout the years Helton has never bad mouthed the organization.  The team has been known to lose more than win throughout Helton’s playing career and he has still played hard throughout.

Helton has been a staple for the team since 1997 at the plate and at first base.  Tallying three gold gloves and providing leadership to the organization on and off the field, Helton has helped Colorado gain notoriety as a MLB franchise.  We can only hope the baseball writers out there see it the same way. So I can only say as a fan, we hope for many more years with Helton at first, and we thank him for his contributions to date.

Editor’s reminder:

To buy a virtual raffle ticket and enter for a chance to win one of the 9 MLB keychains please send a $1 donation by cllicking the button below.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at peter@baseballreflections.com.

Related posts:

1. Can the Rockies stay hot after the break?
2. Interview With Former MLB Catcher Brent Mayne
3. Reflections on the Rockies Past, Present & Future