Todd Helton

Todd Helton
Colorado Rockies – No. 17
First Baseman
Bats: Left Throws: Left
debut
August 2, 1997, for the Colorado Rockies
Career statistics (through 2006)
AVG	.333
RBI	996
HR	286

Todd Lart

Helton (born August 20, 1973 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is a Major League Baseball first baseman who has played for the Colorado Rockies since the 1997 season.  He bats and throws left-handed.

High school years

Helton attended Knox Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee and was a letterman in football and baseball. In football, he posted 2772 total yards as a senior.

In baseball, as a senior, he posted a .690 batting average and 12 home runs and was named the Regional Player of the Year. Helton graduated from Central High School in 1992 with a 3.97 grade point average.

Football career

Helton received a scholarship from the University of Tennessee to play both football and baseball, after turning down a deal from the San Diego Padres. During his freshman and sophomore years at Tennessee he backed up Heath Shuler at quarterback. Starting his junior season he was the back-up behind Jerry Colquitt and ahead of Peyton Manning. After an injury to Colquitt, Helton got the starting spot only to face injury himself and be replaced by Manning. After first seeing Manning tossing the pigskin in practice Helton immediately acknowledged his abilities and switched to a full time baseball player. Following his junior baseball season Helton was drafted by the Colorado Rockies.

Early career

Helton was drafted in the 1st round, 5th overall, in 1995 by the Colorado Rockies. Todd spent the next few years playing for the A Asheville Tourists, AA New Haven Ravens, and AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox. He made his major-league debut on July 21, 1997.

Major-league career

Helton is a solid first baseman, the winner of three Gold Glove Awards (2001, 2002, 2004). As of the start of the 2007 season, he has the highest batting average among all active players at .333, which is second to Gwynn's .338 among all players whose careers began after World War II.

Through the 2006 season, he had the highest career batting average of any active player (.329), and was 2nd in on base percentage (.430), 4th in slugging percentage (.593), 8th in intentional walks (146, tied with Mike Piazza), and 16th in doubles (413).

In addition, Helton holds the Colorado Rockies club records for hits (1700), home runs (286), doubles (413), walks (864), runs scored (1018), RBI (996), on-base percentage (.430), games played (1424), total bases (3029), and other categories.

His favorite players growing up were Rod Carew and Don Mattingly.

1997-1999: The Beginning

After the end of the 1997 season he hit .280/.337/.484, with 5 home runs. When Andrés Galarraga went to the Atlanta Braves in 1998, Helton proved to be a worthy replacement, hitting .315/.380/.530, with 25 home runs and 97 RBI while finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year race. In 1999 Helton carried the Rockies on his back by hitting .320/.395/.587, with 35 home runs and 113 RBI, and drawing 68 walks. They finished an unimpressive 72-90. Since then, he has consistently remained Colorado's best hitter.

2000-2004: The Glory Years

In 2000, Helton enjoyed his best season, leading the National League hitters in batting average (.372) and also winning the overall major league batting title over the American League-leading Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. In 2000 Helton led the major leagues in RBI (147), hits (216), doubles (59), total bases (405), on base percentage (.463), slugging average (.698) and OPS (1.162). He finished 5th in voting for the MVP award. The next season, 2001, was another impressive one for Helton, who had a career high 49 home runs and 146 RBI, in addition to averaging .336/.432/.685 and drawing 98 walks. The 49 home runs tied his teammate Larry Walker for the most home runs ever by a Colorado Rockies player in a single season. Helton was a top candidate for MVP, but was overshadowed by Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, and the fact that he plays half his games at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Helton had a good season in 2002 by hitting .329 and leading the Rockies with 30 homers and 109 RBI. In 2003, he was in the closest NL batting race in history. He hit .358, but Albert Pujols, who hit .359, won the batting title. Helton added 33 home runs and 117 RBI. In 2004, Helton hit .347, but was beaten by Barry Bonds' .362. Helton hit 32 homers and finished with 96 RBI.

2005-2006: Decline

During the 2005 season, Helton had the biggest slump in his career in offensive categories. Helton would bounce back to hit .383 (92-for-240) over final 69 games beginning July 1, highest average in the majors, 24 points higher than the next closest batter (Cleveland's Víctor Martínez, .359). In 2005 he injured his left calf muscle forcing him out of play from July 26 to August 9th. It was the first time Helton was on the disabled list. In 146 games, Todd hit .320 with 20 homers and 81 RBI. The 2006 season was also a tough year for Todd. Despite hitting .302, he only had 15 homers and 81 RBI. That offseason, the Rockies attempted to trade him to the Boston Red Sox. The deal fell through when the Red Sox refused to give up top prospects Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen.

2007-present

The Rockies are hoping Todd will join Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins as Rockies capable of hitting .300, with 30 HR and 100 RBI.

He has played his entire career in Colorado, in the era of free agency, which is a rare feat. Only a relative handful of greats, such as Cal Ripken, Jr., Tony Gwynn, Mike Schmidt, Carl Yastrzemski, Robin Yount, Johnny Bench, Ernie Banks, and George Brett, spent extended careers with one team. Helton currently has the fourth-largest contract in baseball history, making $141.5 million over 9 years. He is currently in the fifth year of the deal and will be a free agent after the 2011 season.

Coors Field Effect

Despite his impressive statistics, Helton is often not considered one of the premier hitters in baseball. This is largely due to the effects of playing in hitter-friendly Coors Field. Through April 14, 2007, Helton has batted .371 in Colorado, and .293 on the road. He's averaged 14.8 at bats per home run at Coors Field, and 23.0 at bats per home run away from home. In a similar number of at bats (2613 at home, 2532 on the road), Helton has 234 more RBI at Coors than on the road. He also has major increases in runs scored (641 vs 380), on base average (.466 vs .392), slugging average (.675 vs .504), and OPS (1.141 vs .896) at Coors Field. Helton also walks less, hits fewer doubles and triples, steals fewer bases, and strikes out more frequently on the road.

Quotes

I don't try to be a Christian to be a better baseball player. I try to be a Christian to be a better person and father. I struggle with it every day, like everyone else in the world. I want to be a better person, like everybody else. We're dirt bags, like 99 percent of the world. Maybe worse, because we are baseball players. Some guys are Christians and some guys aren't.

— Todd Helton on FoxSports.com

Accomplishments

• 5-time All-Star (2000-2004)
• 5-time Silver Slugger Award (2000-2004)
• Dick Howser Trophy (Best National College Baseball Player, 1995)
• The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award (1998)
• Hit for the cycle (2000)
• NL Hank Aaron Award (2001)
• The Associated Press Player of the Year award (2001)
• Helton is the only player in MLB history to have 100-plus extra base hits in consecutive seasons: 109 in 2000, and 118 in 2001. The only others to do it twice in their careers, but not consecutively, were Lou Gehrig (1925, 1930) and Chuck Klein (1930, 1934).
• Helton is also one of only four players to have reached 400 total bases in consecutive seasons (405 in 2000, 402 in 2001). Klein accomplished this feat in 1931 and 1933; Gehrig did so in 1927 and 1932; and Jimmie Foxx did so in 1934 and 1936. Gehrig reached 400 total bases in four other seasons (1925, 1930, 1936), and Klein did so once more (1934). The other players to reach 400 total bases twice in a career were Babe Ruth (1921, 1928), Rogers Hornsby (1922, 1929), and Sammy Sosa (1997, 2001).
• Among active players with at least 5000 at bats, he is currently first in batting average, second in on-base percentage and third in slugging percentage, behind Barry Bonds and Manny Ramírez respectively.

Trivia

• Helton wears number 17 because Mark Grace of the Cubs wore 17. Incidentally, Grace wore 17 because Keith Hernandez wore 17. Hernandez wore 17 with the Mets because he could not wear number 37, his number with the Cardinals, 37 being retired for Casey Stengel. Hernandez wore both 37 and 17 to honor Mickey Mantle, whose number was 7.
• Helton and his family -- wife Christy and daughter Tierney Faith (9/24/02) -- reside in Brighton, Colorado.

See also

• List of NL Gold Glove Winners at First Base
• Top 500 home run hitters of all time

External links

• Baseball-Reference.com Todd Helton Page
• MLB.com Todd Helton Page