Since he procreated, Mike Trout

[11thEagleFan]

Is averaging a home run every 2.3 at-bats. Dad-strength Trout is scary.

 

[ronpolk]

Is averaging a home run every 2.3 at-bats. Dad-strength Trout is scary.

He was pretty scary before too.

To me, trout is the best player since Pujols came up with the cards. When I think about baseballs best players, for me it was Ken Griffey jr during my childhood, pujols during teens and 20s and now easily Trout. I honestly believe Trout is one of the best I’ve ever seen play. I just wish he didn’t play on the west coast where I basically only get to see highlights.

 

[engie]

He was pretty scary before too.

To me, trout is the best player since Pujols came up with the cards. When I think about baseballs best players, for me it was Ken Griffey jr during my childhood, pujols during teens and 20s and now easily Trout. I honestly believe Trout is one of the best I’ve ever seen play. I just wish he didn’t play on the west coast where I basically only get to see highlights.

I totally agree with you.

Pujols is currently #30 in WAR in baseball history. A total of 100.6 WAR in 20 MLB seasons at age 40. Basically averages 5WAR per season.
Trout is currently #85 in WAR all-time and #2 in the active MLB behind Pujols. A total of 73.3 WAR in 10 MLB seasons at age 28. Averaging 7.33WAR per season. And he's really only played 8 seasons. Plus 40 games his first year and 8 games this year.

At 33 years old, this season plus 5 more, assuming health and continued production, Trout will be somewhere between Ted Williams and Lou Gherig in all-time WAR, with a lot of good playing days still likely ahead of him. It's not inconceivable that he ends up #2 all-time behind the Babe.

He likely already is the greatest player of our lifetime. It's unfortunate that almost no one basically ever gets to see him play in real time. You've got guys like Clemens, ARod, Bonds who greatly extended their careers on supplements very high up the list as well.

 

[msudawg12]

Espn does a weekly Trout Tracker each year throughout the season showing all of the Hall of Fame players he passes in WAR each week. It the. Compares stats that are relevant between the two. Its really interesting. I highly recommend a backwards search

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Trout makes me think of what it must have been like watching Mickey Mantle... If Mickey didn't drink or smoke.

 

[PartTimeGenius]

It made my week watching Trout lead off with a bomb and Pujols follow it up a few batters later with a vintage Pujols smash. That's probably the first Pujols bomb I've watched live in years, at least since he signed with the Angels.

On a side note, it's crazy that it's been nearly 10 years since Albert donned the Cardinals jersey......

 

[msudawg12]

Espn does a weekly Trout Tracker each year throughout the season showing all of the Hall of Fame players he passes in WAR each week. It the. Compares stats that are relevant between the two. Its really interesting. I highly recommend a backwards search

Decided to look and make a conservative estimate that Trout finishes with a 3.0 increase in WAR this year. He's at 0.5 now. Could go a little higher but thats probably about right.

Assuming that number, he will jump from 85 on the list to tied at 73. He passed Jim Thome this week. Names he will pass by the end of the year:

Pud Galvin
Frank Thomas
Paul Warner
Reggie Jackson
Lou Whitaker
Johnny Bench
Bill Dahlen
Sam Crawford
Old Hoss Radbourn
Paul Molitor
Jim McCormick

He will be tied with Bobby Wallace and the next guy on the list is Ozzie Smith

He is 28 freaking years old and in his 10th season.

 

[ronpolk]

I totally agree with you.

Pujols is currently #30 in WAR in baseball history. A total of 100.6 WAR in 20 MLB seasons at age 40. Basically averages 5WAR per season.
Trout is currently #85 in WAR all-time and #2 in the active MLB behind Pujols. A total of 73.3 WAR in 10 MLB seasons at age 28. Averaging 7.33WAR per season. And he's really only played 8 seasons. Plus 40 games his first year and 8 games this year.

At 33 years old, this season plus 5 more, assuming health and continued production, Trout will be somewhere between Ted Williams and Lou Gherig in all-time WAR, with a lot of good playing days still likely ahead of him. It's not inconceivable that he ends up #2 all-time behind the Babe.

He likely already is the greatest player of our lifetime. It's unfortunate that almost no one basically ever gets to see him play in real time. You've got guys like Clemens, ARod, Bonds who greatly extended their careers on supplements very high up the list as well.

You posting this made me go back and look at the numbers Pujols put up early in his career. I honestly forgot just how good he was. From 2001-2010 (and really 2011 and 2012 was pretty good too) that was really an unbelievable run of amazing baseball. His lowest OPS over that period was 955 in 2002. Lowest batting average was .312 in 2010. Lowest HR was 32 and lowest rbi was 103, both happened in 2007. His OPS in his first 10 seasons was 1.037.

It was certainly fun to watch. I had just forgotten just how good it was.

 

[ClintonInHelen]

He hit it...

 

[RocketDawg]

Smoking was healthy back then. Must have been, because a lot of doctors advertised cigarettes. It's not so healthy now - must be a mutated strain of tobacco.

I vaguely remember seeing Mickey and Yogi Berra playing. The Yankees were always the Saturday game of the week.