Nine to Know: Todd Helton edition

If there is any player who has been a victim of East Coast bias (yes, I’m a biaser) it’s Todd Helton. It’s not that we put him down, but Helton has never gotten the attention he deserves based on the concept “out of sight, out of mind.”

As Helton approaches his 38th birthday, in the midst of his 15th season, it’s not to late to appreciate this future Hall of Famer.

Here’s your Nine to Know:

1. Helton is a lifetime .324 hitter and is hitting .323 this season.
2. Helton has had 11 seasons over .300 the same as Derek Jeter, George Brett, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Medwick, Arky Vaughn, and others.
3. Helton has 342 homers and 1277 career RBI. Here is a list of the players with at least 2000 games, over a .320 lifetime average, over 300 homers, and over 1200 RBI:

Rk		G	HR	RBI	BA	From	To	Tm
1	Ted Williams	2292	521	1839	.344	1939	1960	BOS
2	Al Simmons	2215	307	1827	.334	1924	1944	PHA-CHW-DET-WSH-TOT-BOS
3	Babe Ruth	2503	714	2213	.342	1914	1935	BOS-NYY-BSN
4	Stan Musial	3026	475	1951	.331	1941	1963	STL
5	Rogers Hornsby	2259	301	1584	.358	1915	1937	STL-NYG-BSN-CHC-TOT-SLB
6	Todd Helton	2002	342	1277	.324	1997	2011	COL
7	Lou Gehrig	2164	493	1995	.340	1923	1939	NYY
8	Jimmie Foxx	2316	534	1922	.325	1925	1945	PHA-BOS-TOT-CHC-PHI

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/3/2011.
4. Helton had four hits on Friday night against KC, that gives him 38 four-hit games in his career. Ted Williams had 37.
5. This season Helton has struck out 39 times, only once in his 15 seasons has he struck over 100 times (in 2001 he struck out 104 times). He has five seasons in which he has hit over 30 homers and struck out less than 100 times. Mike Schmidt, Harmon Killebrew, and Carl Yastrzemski only had three seasons each.
6. Helton has a lifetime OPS of .975 and has had five seasons in which his OPS has been over 1.000. So did Willie Mays.
7. Helton has had six seasons with over 300 total bases. The same as Junior Griffey, Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Jim Rice, among others.
8. Helton has had two seasons with over 400 total bases. The same as Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, and Babe Ruth.
9. Finally, before you comment that Helton is purely a high altitude hitter, yes he is a lifetime .355 hitter at home, he has hit .292 with 133 homers on the road. Granted his OPS is 1.075 in Denver but .873 on the road is nothing to scoff at.