Mike Trout needs his own thread

jeez, look at the way he rounds first in that second clip. amazing.

Bonifacio gif linked in the comments is actually an even crazier looking play.

will return to LF when Bourjos is activated

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/5/31/4383614/mike-trout-center-field-left-field-mike-scioscia

i posted that in the angels thread the other day :(

it is strange how the advanced metrics have him as a minus fielder so far this year after being a stellar LF last year

B-R has him -9 runs in the field so far!

i meant to say OF in the previous post btw, he played left and center iirc

it is strange how the advanced metrics have him as a minus fielder so far this year after being a stellar LF last year

― k3vin k., Sunday, June 2, 2013 11:11 AM (6 days ago)

An attempt to break this down:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/36800/why-are-trouts-defensive-numbers-so-bad

Conclusion: don't expect it to last.

thanks, i was just about to ask if anything's been written about that!

75mph changeup = line-drive HR to left

four hits today

Noticed that he's almost exactly where he was last year in terms of basic slash stats:

2012 -- .326/.399/.564
2013 -- .320/.399/.560

His HR and SB are down a little, 2B and 3B way up.

why is there no youtube compilation of mike trout triples?

4-4 with 2 walks last night, up to .331/.412/.568 and leads fWAR by 0.4 wins

18 walks in his last 10 games

David Cameron @DCameronFG
Through age-21 season, by wRC+, Mike Trout is the best hitter of all time, edging out Foxx and Williams.

David Cameron @DCameronFG
That's just hitting. No baserunning, no fielding, just hitting. Trout has been better than Ted Williams at hitting.

seeing him play next week

I saw him before his rookie year! Batting ninth!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ANA/ANA201107090.shtml

...

Two-run homer first time up tonight. If it weren't for that (still weird) -1.4 defensive number, he'd probably be on his way to about a 12.0 WAR for the year.

Angels have to be trying to lock him up for like decade.

Two-run homer first time up tonight. If it weren't for that (still weird) -1.4 defensive number, he'd probably be on his way to about a 12.0 WAR for the year.

― clemenza, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 10:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fangraphs is much kinder, but even they have him as a neutral defender rather than a huge minus.

anyway OPS above 1.000 now - .333/.424/.580

just turned 22 yesterday btw

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/happy-22nd-birthday-mike-trout-2/

re: mookie's post. look at that list. nothing but inner-circle guys

I wonder if the guy mistakenly left A-Rod off the list. Baseball Reference has him at 14.3 through age 21, which would safely put him on there. Is there that much difference between the two methods?

Just to be annoyingly nitpicky, I'm not sure I'd call Arky Vaughan inner-circle. On the merits, maybe, although his numbers were mostly compiled in the '30s. In the popular imagination, no. He's just not that famous.

he was one of Nixon's all-time shortstops!

"Goddamit, Bob, I don't care about the Negro in Chicago or those two guys from Jew York City--give me Arky Vaughan."

the list is sorted by wRC+ - i'm not sure how to calculate that but a-rod's might not have been above vaughn's 131 if you count his first two full seasons plus his assorted call-ups prior to that

this was a really great read:
http://thelinedrive.com/2012/09/19/the-day-i-pegged-mike-trout/

Not the best time for A-Rod testimonials, but when I was checking his numbers, I'd forgotten he only played 146 games in his sort-of-rookie season. Not nearly as abbreviated as Trout's 2012, but if you give back even 10 of those 16 missing games, he almost surely would have had 400 total bases (379 for the year).

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/70717/mike-trouts-ridiculous-encore-performance

Similar to the Fangraphs piece above, but ranked by WAR, so A-Rod's high. The inner-circleness holds until #12, where Vada Pinson shows up. (Pinson's prolonged drift into retirement at age 36 has always fascinated me.)

http://mlb.si.com/2013/08/08/mike-trout-birthday-angels/

trout somehow just leapfrogged everyone else and now leads the league in bWAR?

hm, looks like he's gone from -1.5 dWAR to -1.1 over the past week. robbing that home run a couple nights ago probably helped

Is there a good explanation for the over 3 dWAR swing between last year and this year? Is Trout really not making that many plays this year that your replacement level player would (and that he did last year)?

I think the 2.1 dWAR from last year is actually wackier than the minus 1.1 from this year.

there have been a few articles about it - it basically boils down to the fact that he had like 4 incredible home run robs in like 5 months last year and, until yesterday, had none so far this year. it is pretty suspect that his dWAR numbers are so bad (at least on b-r) given his speed. fangraphs had him as a neutral defender up until a couple days ago

So robbing a home run = a 1/4 of a win? That seems more suspect to me than his dWAR #s this year since I thought one win basically boiled down to 10 runs above replacement.

Actually even more than a 1/4 since that was an explanation for a nearly 4 dWAR swing.

I love the idea of defensive metrics like WAR but swings like this are a lot harder to understand than their offensive counterparts.

I've been following Trout and Cabrera on Baseball Reference, and here's something I don't quite understand. I knew, once Trout got hot (and especially with Cabrera missing games), it was only a matter of time before Trout moved to the top of the list. Today seems like an odd day for it to happen, though Yesterday, Cabrera was up 6.2 to 6.1; this morning, it's Trout 6.4, Cabrera 6.2.

Trout had an okay game yesterday: 0-2, but he drew two walks and stole two bases. Cabrera was 2-5 with (as you may have read) a home run--no extra credit for the who and when of the latter, but still. Neither guy made an error. Putouts, assists, or great plays, I don't know.

I know it's all context-driven, but based on that, how did Trout move up three-tenths of a game, and Cabrera only one-tenth? Maybe Baseball Reference is a day behind on their WAR calculations, but I don't think so.

yeah it's puzzling. like i said it looks like trout's gain was on the defensive side, where he went from -1.4 to -1.1 (i think overnight) - but that must be from the robbed home run, i'd have thought

trout's defensive numbers this year are also lower because he's been playing more LF than he did in 2012 so he's working against stricter positional adjustments

WAR's positional, right? You're x number of games above the current replacement level at your position, as measured against everybody else playing the same spot? I sometimes wonder if a hidden contributing factor might be--in the case of these two guys--that, as a group, third basemen had a better night last night than center fielders. Sounds bizarre, I know, but I'm trying to understand how Trout makes up ground on Cabrera last night. (If Trout's great catch was the night before, presumably that had already been figured in prior to today's calculations.)

i think that the positional baselines for WAR are fixed and not based on how other players at the same position do on a night-to-night basis

i could be wrong tho

the catch wasn't even all that great tbh, but that's all i can think of that would cause that swing

sarge what do you mean by that? he played some LF early in the year, but aren't LFers theoretically less skilled than CFers? if anything on the defensive side that should have helped him?

xp

Okay. I would think they'd adjust the baseline periodically, though--the replacement level for first basemen during the McGwire-Bagwell-Thomas-Palmeiro-McGriff era must have been historically high.

If anybody else can explain how 0-2 with two walks and two stolen bases makes up two-tenths of a game on 2-5 with a home run, please do. (Would the fact that Cabrera's home run tied the game in the 9th inning be worth anything--does WPA figure into WAR?)

"trout's defensive numbers this year are also lower because he's been playing more LF than he did in 2012 so he's working against stricter positional adjustments"

Yeah this makes no sense to me either. If he was 2 wins better than replacement at CF then in theory he'd be way better than a replacement LF not way worse.

xp I don't think any WPA stuff is used. I think this is a question you'd have to ask the B-R guy to get an answer.

his fielding runs above average hasn't moved on fangraphs for at least a week

As an Angels fan, I still enjoy getting to see him play, whatever he can contribute, which was a fair amount this past year. A lot of talk about him returning to the OF, maybe he wants that, but him at DH is pretty cool. Halos have a logjam there if that's still in the cards with Jorge Soler still on the team. If Adell wants to tackle playing center again next year, more power to him.

Last guy you want to jinx, but 4-6 with two HR so far.

still got it baby

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5kLys86/troutputs.jpg

Fp'd

fair

sample size of 19 games but

20 runs
7 HR
16 RBI
17 BB

Would still like to see him get his average up, but he's been great otherwise.

I know the power and walks more than compensate, but I'm forever wedded to the aesthetic beauty of the .300/.400/.500 slash line. Just can't help it.

if it helps, via Savant he's actually underperforming his expected stats. expected BA is .291, OBA is .486, and SLG is .746

That's good--obviously hitting the ball hard, so probably some bad luck in there. (I know it sounds like I've been parachuted in from 1953...just 1970.)

‪

Sarah Langs‬ ✧@slangsonspo✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬

Mike Trout has homered in five straight games against the Yankees dating to last season, tied for the longest streak vs NYY, with:

2012 Mark Trumbo
1994 Albert Belle
1984-85 Harold Baines

Sarah Langs‬ @slangsonsports.bsky.social‬

Mike Trout has five homers so far this series
That’s tied for the most in a series vs NYY, with:
June 1990 George Bell
Sept 1985 Darrell Evans
June 1933 Jimmie Foxx

Would still like to see him get his average up, but he's been great otherwise.

― clemenza, Thursday, April 16, 2026 5:32 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know the power and walks more than compensate, but I'm forever wedded to the aesthetic beauty of the .300/.400/.500 slash line. Just can't help it.

― clemenza, Thursday, April 16, 2026 5:43 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

his BABIP is .227. seems like at least some of it is bad luck

That is indeed abnormally low...Can't say that I remember that 5-HR George Bell series.

I like when mark trumbo shows up on a list like this

OPS at exactly a thousand after today's game!

I want to believe...

impressively deep red

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/mike-trout-545361?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

90th percentile sprint speed at his age and after the injuries is unbelievable

BA is creeping up

85% lifetime stolen base percentage, has five so far this year

Sixty walks