Should Todd Helton be in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Colorado Rockies legend Todd Helton is on his fifth year for the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and, with only a couple days left until the deadline (the announcement will be made at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, January 24, on MLB Network), he is sitting above the 75% threshold to get in (based on the ballots that have been revealed publicly). This begs the question though: Should Todd Helton be in the Hall of Fame?

Based on his statistics, Todd Helton has a very compelling argument to become the second member of the Colorado Rockies inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame

Just looking at base stats, Helton’s case looks promising. For his 17-year career, he had a slash line of .316/.414/.539 and an OPS of .953 which equates to an OPS+ of 133. He had back-to-back 50-double seasons, including seven out of eight straight 40-double seasons from 2000-2007. He finished with 2,519 hits, 369 home runs and 1406 RBI. He is one of only 99 MLB players in history with more than 350 home runs. While some may argue his numbers are a little skewed as his entire career was played at Coors Field, only the first five seasons were played without the humidor. Additionally, there is this factoid.

Now looking into his more advanced stats, Helton stacks up with the greats here too. He had a 61.8 career bWAR with three seasons above 7.0 with a best of 8.9 in 2000. Even with playing at Coors Field for his entire career, his wOBA was .405 and wRC+ of 132. He had a better career walk rate (14.1 percent) than strikeout rate (12.4 percent). Defensively, he had a DRS of 33 and UZR of 25.7.

Todd Helton is one of the Colorado Rockies all-time greats and one of the best first baseman ever. His percentages are trending in the right category, and have been for a few years now. Even if he falls below 75 percent this year, next year could most definitely be his time to shine.