Growing up a baseball fan, I heard names like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Mays and Williams as some of the greatest to play the game. With a little less than a month left in the 2017 baseball season, if you’ve never taken the time to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play, you might be missing out on a player that deserves to be motioned with them. Since Mike Trout came into the league in 2012 (his first full season as a professional) as a rookie all he has done is finish 1st or 2nd for the American League MVP. 2017 might be the year that streak comes to an end, even though this might be his best statistical season to date. On May 28th of this year he tore a ligament in his thumb and missed 39 games, which equates to almost a quarter of the season. This year as o today he has played in 93 games and has a batting average of.326, if he had enough at bats to qualify for a leader in that statistical category, he would be 2nd in the American League. He currently has 27 home runs which is tied for 19th in the American League. Mike Trout has led the league in runs score every season except one and has scored more runs than any other player since he came into the league in 2012, he is currently tied for 17th in runs this year. In 2014, he won his first MVP award while hitting .287, 36 home runs, 111 runs batted in and scoring 115 runs. Last year he won his second American League MVP award while having a batting average of .315, hitting 29 home runs, 100 runs batted in and scoring 123 runs.
Earlier this season, Trout became the youngest player in Major League Baseball history to reach 150 home runs and 150 stolen bases.
One of the newest stats to measure how good a player is in comparison to other players is WAR or Wins Above Replacement. Essentially what WAR measures how many wins a player could generate compared to an average player that would replace them. There are different ways to measure WAR, it can be measured solely offensively, defensively, pitching or seasonal which is all three combined. Every year since 2012 (Mike Trout’s first full professional season) he has led all of baseball in Offensive WAR, until this year. This year with a little less than a month to go in the season he is in second while missing 39 games. If you want to compare him to other players seasonally, he has led all of baseball every year except for one (2015), Bryce Harper led the league. According to Fangraphs Trout has accumulated more WAR through his age 24 seasons, than any other player since 1913, with 45 WAR. Mickey Mantle was second with 41.1 followed by other Hall of Famers, Mel Ott, Jimmie Fox and Ted Williams to name a few.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim don’t get as much attention as other teams for whatever reason, being on the west coast or that they have only made the playoffs once since Mike Trout has been in the Major Leagues. This year as of right now they are in the second wild card position and will hopefully play meaningful baseball for the rest of the season.
Being an Angels fan for as long as I can remember I have had the pleasure of watching Trout play since he got called up from the Angels Minor League system. But if you never got the chance to watch him play, make it a priority, we could be witnessing one of the best to ever step into the batter’s box.
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