I saw a game on Larry Walker’s Hall of Fame weekend at Coors Field. He didn’t speak, but I’m guessing he spoke earlier in the weekend. They showed some career highlights on the Jumbo Tron and gave us all a hall of fame pin. I have the Hall of Fame pin on my dresser. I’m alright with Walker for the hall of fame as he does score highly in my system.
Walker was one of those guys who did everything well and hit great a few years in his career past the normal prime. He had an injury filled career. He played a good number of games 11 of 14 years between 1990 and 2003 before he started to fade. So, his career had good amount of length. However, he played 150 or more games in his career only once, the year he won the MVP. That is an indication that he had nagging injuries and probably played hurt a lot in those other 13 seasons. There is a good chance this is why Walker peaked late in his career.
It is interesting St. Louis picked him up for the last year and a half of his career. He still played well, but not very often. In the playoffs in 2004 he hit well helping the Cardinals into the World series and hitting really well there. In 2005 he hit terribly, and St. Louis lost to Houston in the National League Championship Series. He then quietly retired.
By the way, I have been a little slow lately. I was really busy during the holidays and have done the dumbest thing possible. I made changes to my formula and have started recalculating all the players. I expect to make more changes. I finished first base and am working on catching but will try to get more articles done while working on the changes. There will be changes in the rankings, but players here will make the top 1,000 no matter what.
