Why is todd helton not playing

But Helton made significant progress in the third of his 10 eligible years on the ballot. Helton, who spent his entire year career with Colorado from , was listed on His In his first year on the ballot , Helton received Of players who have received at least By Matt Snyder. Jan 8, at am ET 5 min read. Should he get in?

Let's take a look. The case Over the course of his year career, Helton posted a most impressive. How secure is Manfred's job as lockout looms? Dayn Perry 7 min read. Top offseason question for each team Mike Axisa 19 min read.

MLB roundtable: Correa or Seager? Mike Axisa 2 min read. If A's unload, where could stars land? Anderson 5 min read. Besides hitting at a superb level, Todd Helton also was a magnificent defensive player at first base. He won Gold Gloves at the position in , , and Only Keith Hernandez in many ways a similar player who I believe should be in the Hall of Fame has more. Helton was superb at tracking down groundballs to his right a reason for his high assist total and also excelled at scooping up errant throws from his fielders a reason for his high fielding percentage.

One thing that perennially frustrated Todd Helton for the first decade of his playing career in Colorado was that his season never extended into October. I would love to get a taste of the playoffs. I am not on the three-year or four-year plan to get there. I am on a one-year plan. West every year. For most of , with Hurdle at the helm for the 6th straight year, it looked like much of the same.

At the conclusion of play on Saturday, September 15th, the Rockies were , in 4th place, 6. The Rockies had just lost three straight games to the Florida Marlins. That game sparked a streak in which the Rockies would win 12 of their next 13 games to finish the regular season with an record.

The mark was good enough for a 2nd-place tie with the San Diego Padres, setting up a winner-take-all game at Coors Field to determine the N. Wild Card entrant. Colorado famously won the tiebreaker game in 13 innings , coming from behind to defeat future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman Most notable was in the third game of the streak. In the second game of a doubleheader, the Rockies were trailing the Dodgers in the bottom of the 9th inning; Helton hit a two-run walk-off home run off Takashi Saito give the Rox the victory.

Overall, between regular and postseason baseball, Colorado had won 21 out of 22 games to advance to the Fall Classic against the Boston Red Sox. Alas, the miracle season did not finish with the ultimate outcome. For Helton, the postseason was a disappointment with the bat.

He hit just. Still, being in the October party was something the competitive first baseman had craved for so long. Due to a degenerative back condition, Helton played in only 83 games in He hit a then career-low. Back surgery in September ended his season prematurely.

Helton did have a mini-renaissance in He slashed. The Rockies returned to postseason baseball, winning the N. Wild Card again. In his final two campaigns, Helton hit just. In the middle of September , the year old Helton announced that he would retire at the end of the season. In his final game at Coors, a loss to the Red Sox in an interleague tilt, Helton went out in style, going 2 for 3 with a home run and a double.

First of all, Helton had a career slash line of. The first six are not just Hall of Famers but all-time greats. If you lower the slash line standards to round numbers. Helton was a doubles machine. His career two-baggers are the 19th most in the history of baseball. Helton was also the first player ever to record 35 doubles per season for 10 consecutive campaigns. Todd Helton at his best was a magnificent batsman, even when you account for the Coors Field edge. Of those 47 players, 38 are in the Hall.

McGriff was on the ballot for the 10th year in January and received From , Todd Helton had a remarkable stretch in which he joined an exclusive fraternity, a quartet of players with at least 5 consecutive seasons with a. If you forget about achieving this in consecutive seasons, only 21 have managed the.

At home, he posted a. On the road, he slashed. On paper, it's a stark comparison, but not a complete picture of his career. Helton also played in era when offensive numbers were inflated. Aside from the monster season, he only led the league in one major statistical category. And he's only got one top 5 finish in the NL MVP balloting to show for it when he finished fifth in In , he received a respectable He followed with a significant boost in with