So, You Didn't Vote for Larry Walker l Baseball Bits

Hey foolish baseball has a Twitter account now justin verlander already knows and now you know too if you have room for another baseball Twitter account in your life you can follow me at foolish BB now on with the video [Music] man someone has to do something about this so we all know why you're here let's not beat around the bush your remember of the Baseball Writers Association of America a credentialed and trusted member of the media that covers the best game ever created this winter you were tasked with filling out a ballot containing up to 10 names for election to baseball's prestigious Hall of Fame and you you didn't vote for Larry Walker mr. Walker received just 34.1% of the vote last year but has now received 60 7.2% on all the public ballots listed with your forced cooperation we will right this wrong and get mr. Walker his 75% before his time on the ballot expires that's why I'm here today to engage in a brainwashing oh sorry re-education program with you it's not something I'm proud to do but it'll be for the good of the sport so just sit back relax and you may feel some slight tearing at the cranium and spine that's normal just close your eyes and enjoy the digital presentation [Music] you know that's a really nice triple slash right there is it Larry Walker no it's ken griffey jr. who set the record for vote-getting percentage with an astonishing ninety nine point three percent chances are mr. baseball rider you voted for the kid and didn't have to think twice about it which is good ken griffey jr. is definitely deserving of a Hall of Fame spot but no this is Larry Walker's career triple slash line which Dwarfs griffeys even defeats him in o-p-s Plus which is League & Park adjusted and before you even dare speak that seed - - - - word let me show you this do you see that Larry Walker has a higher road o-p-s than ken griffey jr. now in all fairness Griffey has about 3,000 more plate appearances but apart from that the two players make a great comparison they were both massively talented albeit injury-riddled outfielders who played in the exact same era in fact they each made their major league debut in 1989 in 865 o-p-s is really good Wade Boggs his career o-p-s is lower than that so if you want to say cores in the steroid era was a madhouse I agree but that doesn't mean you can dismiss everyone who played there that's why we compare players from the same era and that's why we use parka just in ear adjusted stats like OBS plus speaking of which mr. baseball writer well I guess it could be misses but sadly probably not you probably looked at your ballot and nearly fainted when you saw another Coors Field icon in the form of Todd Helton who played half his games there if we're gonna dot points for Coors we should probably know just how many games Larry Walker played there so I'll pose this question for you approximately what percentage of Larry Walker's career games were played at Coors Field it's thirty percent thirty point three to be exact so less than than third it's a decent chunk but it's not Todd Helton who played half his games there it's been if Todd Helton let's get to my next point [Music] now that sounds mean to todd helton who's honestly an interesting Hall of Fame case in his own right but you voters need to stop treating Larry Walker like he's Todd Helton he didn't play half his games there okay 30% his o-p-s plus is higher and most importantly Larry Walker was the complete package that's the most important thing I want to communicate in this video when you're assessing position players you can split most guys into two categories and I'll admit this is simplifying very heavily look it's III about the bat or the package let me explain if you played an easy position like first base or designated hitter and you weren't particularly quick around the base paths or memorable and other facets of your game your Hall of Fame candidacy lies squarely on what you did with the bat in your hands that goes for guys like Frank Thomas Fred McGriff Edgar Martinez Jim Thome etc it's all about the bat todd helton candidacy falls under this category as well as it should pretty much any first baseman not named Keith Hernandez should be looked at primarily for their bat and there's no shame in this then you have Kaiser did a little bit of everything Tim Raines who was another sabermetric darling got in on his incredible base dealing Andruw Jones will try to stay on the ballot this year will hinge on his defense just as much as his offense and Scott Roland's another example and as is every single catch for a shortstop to appear on the ballot what I'm arguing here is that Larry Walker is a more complete baseball player than most of us remember we've become so enamored with the bat and the steroid era and cores that you forget about his defense and base running so let's have a look at it now so Larry Walker was a right fielder pure and simple 95% of his games were played in right field now right field is a fun position to assess because right fielders range from some of the leaks best offenders like Mookie Betts and Jason Heyward to some guys who are just kind of stuck out there like Nick Castellanos sorry Nick it doesn't have the prestige or difficulty of being a center fielder or catcher or shortstop but certainly it cut above playing first base and definitely a cut above a designated hitter and that's why you see fan graphs using these positional adjustments now if you're going to kill Larry Walker's bat because pre humid or Coors Field was a pinball machine it's only right that you give a boost to his glove here's some facts about Coors Field among major league ballparks it has the second largest outfield area it has the highest rate of balls in play and it has the highest batting average on balls in play so this is to say that if you played outfield in Coors in the 90s during the steroid era of pre humid or blah blah blah blah like Larry Walker did you had enormous responsibilities responsibilities far greater than the average right fielder you safe in today's MLB where the amount of balls in plays just rapidly decreasing and look we don't have all the fielding metrics for Walker that we do now I'll tell you this much while you watch his highlights he has a positive defensive value on FanGraphs in a positive Deewar on Baseball Reference that's pretty impressive because the positional adjustments for right fielders aren't particularly kind I also racked up a plus 86 total zone in right field which were those of you who don't know total zone is the precursor to UCR his great defense was recognized in his time as well as Larry took home 7 Gold Gloves now it's time for me to talk about what a great base stealer he was he stole 230 bases and was only caught 76 times that means he with [Applause] sorry the brainwashing program is having major difficulties let's execute the Geezer protocol and get out of here look where those PARCC factors advanced defensive metrics and ear adjusted numbers a little tough on you yes it's possible that as a baseball writer with a vote you were born a long long time ago and your favorite player growing up was I don't know Phil Rizzuto look he had seven Gold Gloves he won an MVP award he hit 313 for his career he swiped 230 bags remember when guys used to have a hundred RBI in a season he did that five times he didn't just play in course for the Rockies he was great with the Expos and he was great with the Cardinals he had a 30-30 season in 1997 this is a clip of him hitting a walk-off home run off John Rocker which is basically the same thing as fighting racism he was way better than Harold Baines and you know what he was probably better than Vlad Guerrero and he was definitely better than Phil Rizzuto so just let him in also he didn't use steroids well he might have we can't know for certain but there's no real suspicion or evidence oh you guys want the Tim Kurkjian stat he's the only player in baseball history with a 300 average 400 on-base percentage 200 stolen bases and 350 home runs oh and batting titles you guys love bang titles he won three of those and I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries here but he had a lot of Wins Above Replacement and i know when you see that particular statistic it drives you crazy but is he waking up you know it's a good all-encompassing stat it's not the be-all end-all but it's a great place to start before done man I just really hope he's gonna vote for Larry Walker after all this can we plug the sponsor now Amino is a smartphone app for all sorts of fandoms and this video was sponsored by Grand Slam amino acyl Mediasite for baseball fans to connect with one another from following the off season news to chatting with others this app gives you everything you need in one place personally I'm a big fan of the quizzes and polls after I nailed the MLB managers quiz I tried to predict how many no-hitters there would be this upcoming season all content is user curated and it uses a voting system so that you always see the best grand-slam amino is a terrific space for baseball nerds like you and me to connect so come find me on the app I just posted by 2019 Hall of Fame ballot there and you best believe Larry Walker is on it to participate in all forms of baseball fandom on grand-slam lemme know just click the link in the description or pin youtube comment and follow the prompts to download Amino for free on iOS or Android or you can download Amino by searching your app store then searching for grand slam once you're in remember you can find me there by searching my username foolish baseball all right take care [Music]

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 367,199

Rating: 4.9418087 out of 5

Keywords: larry walker, larry walker hall of fame, larry walker coors, why larry walker should be in the hall of fame, baseball hall of fame voting, baseball hall of fame 2019, todd helton hall of fame, hall of fame voting 2019, vote for larry walker, baseball bits, foolish baseball, baseball video essay, larry walker rockies, coors effect, mlb, baseball, mlb hall of fame, cooperstown, colorado rockies hall of fame, todd helton, hall of fame ballot 2019, edgar martinez hall of fame

Id: dE87YOZRHEU

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Errattik]

I am biased as hell since Walker was my favourite player as a kid. Even trying to put my bias aside though, I think he deserves to get in based on his numbers.

[u/noahslol]

it just scares me that if walker doesn’t get in, no rockie probably ever will.

[u/[deleted]]

I got to meet Larry in ‘94 at the Big O. He took a team set of cards down to the dugout for me and methodically went through the lineup, having each card signed.

A gem of a man and a giant of Canadian baseball.

I will be sorely disappointed if he doesn’t get in to the HOF.

[u/InYourFace1023]

Larry Walker: hit a walk-off homer against the CEO of racism

Other HOF Candidates: Did not hit a walk-off homer against the CEO of racism, possibly pro-racism

[u/Kieiros]

It's gonna be a hard hill to climb to get that last 20%, but I feel hopeful that he's gonna make it there.

I mean, according to Ryan Thibodaux's twitter, he's already at +2 with 0 votes in.

[u/yes_its_him]

It's not like he has more WAR than that Jeter guy, or anything.

[u/XtraVirginOliveOil12]

In my mind, his 1997 is the best season by a hitter of all time. .355/.450/.712, 49 HR, 46 2B, 208 H, 130 RBI, 33 SB

[u/[deleted]]

Quote the Voters

“Coors”

(I actually like Larry, but this fact seems to make voters do a Triple H face)

[u/[deleted]]

I really hope Larry Walker gets in. Who cares if his stats are inflated. That’s not cheating. You’re basically invalidating all the accomplishments of an entire roster of a franchise because they play in the mountains. Ergo, you’d invalidate the entire feelings and memories of an entire cities’ fanbase. The baseball writers owe it to the good people of Denver to put Larry Walker in the Hall, or else what’s the point of baseball in Colorado.