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41’s Inside Pitch: Helton should go into Hall this year…and Dale Murphy should join him

@MarkKnudson41

When it comes to voting for Baseball’s Hall of Fame, the focus around here is – and should be – on the candidacy of Todd Helton. The greatest Colorado Rockie of them all, who spent 17 seasons in purple pinstripes, has every credential possible for induction into Cooperstown. If trends continue as they have been, eventually – hopefully this year or next – he will garner the 75% needed for inclusion into an exclusive group that already includes former teammate Larry Walker.

The pathetic “Coors Field” excuses still spouted by the minority that won’t vote for Helton have been debunked over and over. Hall of Fame baseball writer Jayson Stark put it this way:

“There are tools that do an excellent job in this day and age telling us what a player is, whether he plays at Coors Field, or Fenway Park or the Grand Canyon or wherever. Let’s just take the simplest metric that there is, that accounts for park differential and everything else, and that’s OPS+. Todd Helton’s career OPS+ was 133. That means he was 33% better than the average player of his time – accounting for the park that he played in.”

The only first baseman of the 20th and 21st centuries that have an OPS+ as good as Todd Helton over 2,000 games played are Lou Gehrig, Jeff Bagwell, Willie McCovey, Albert Pujols and Fred McGriff. Gehrig, Bagwell and McCovey are in Cooperstown. Pujols just retired. McGriff is expected to be chosen for induction by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee this year. He too, is overdue.

There should be no more excuses, and no reason to wait. Todd Helton should be voted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame this year, period.

What would be even better than Helton getting voted in would be if another former Rockie could join him on the stage.

Who could that be? Since so many HoF voters are hung up on the numbers, let’s make a three way comparison:

Player A had a career .289 batting average. He hit 384 home runs, drove in 1,628. He played in five All-Star games, but never won an MVP or a Gold Glove, for that matter. His highest finish in any MVP race was 9th.

In analytics speak, he had a 38.8 Wins Above Replacement and an OPS+ of 121.

He’s in the Hall of Fame now.

Player B had a career batting average of .318. He hit 207 homers and drove in 1,085 runs. He went to 10 All-Star games, won six Gold Gloves…but his highest MVP finish was a single runner up.

He has a WAR of 51.2 and an OPS+ of 124.

He’s in the Hall of Fame now.

Player C had a career batting average of .265. He hit 398 homers and drove in 1,266 runs. He played in seven All-Star games, won five Gold Glove Awards and won two MVP awards.

He has a WAR of 46.5 and an OPS+ of 121.

Player C is NOT in the Hall of Fame.

Player A is Harold Baines, the former standout Designated Hitter voted into the Hall by the “Today’s Game” committee in 2019.

Player B is the late Kirby Puckett, who’s off the field issues and injury shortened career didn’t dissuade voters from putting him in Cooperstown back in 2001. Having faced Puckett more times than I care to remember, I can attest firsthand to his greatness. He belongs. I also faced Baines quite a few times. Great player. Not a Hall of Famer, IMO.

Then there’s Player C…Dale Murphy. He belongs.

Murphy was baseball’s best player throughout the 1980’s. His two MVP’s are two more than Baines and Puckett combined. His OPS+, which Stark tells us is THE analytic for determining a players Hall worthiness, was exactly the same as Baines and just slightly behind Puckett’s. He hit more homers than Baines, won seven more Gold Gloves, played in more All-Star games and had a better WAR in fewer seasons played.

Murphy played the bulk of his stellar career with Atlanta and spent some time with the Phillies before signing with the inaugural Rockies in 1993. He hoped to knock a couple balls into the east stands at Mile High Stadium to reach 400, but it never happened. Murphy was a Rockie just a few days longer than I was a Rockie, since we both retired in May of 1993. Being teammates with him for even a brief time was an honor, considering he was MLB’s best player during my formative years of the 1980’s.

Murphy can’t ever be considered a product of Coors Field…so what’s the lame excuse the writers, and now the veteran’s committees, can use to keep him out? His “peak years” weren’t as long as some? Neither were Puckett’s or Sandy Koufax for that matter. Longevity matters, but it isn’t everything. Murphy choose to hang it up early rather than hang around. Kudos to him for that, too.

This year’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee vote announcement will be made soon. Few expect Murphy to make it, just like few expect Helton to reach his needed level of support from the Baseball Writers this time around. There are no legitimate reasons as to why. It would be so appropriate for them to share the stage during induction weekend.

It just leaves you shaking your head.

What are these voters thinking?

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