Mike Trout needs his own thread

http://metsmerizedonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sports-illustrated-253x300.png

he is now at 9.4 rwar for the season. his closest competitor is robinson cano, who has played 21 more games, at 6.2. fwar is a bit more circumspect, but still gives him significant lead.

he leads the majors in stolen bases, runs scored and ops+

randal grichuk, whom the angels took one pick ahead of trout, is having a nice season in high-a ball.

this fucking guy.

he's probably not gonna top A-Rods ridiculous age 20 season but yeah this is getting stupid

He's only not going to top it cuz he missed a month (although to be fair to A-Rod he only played 146 games it looks like.)

Totally proves the draft is a complete crapshoot.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/10/mike-trout-is-first-player-to-reach-10-war-since-barry-bonds

TROUT

...and a triple to go with his homer after two AB. Geez, if he hits for the cycle, you'll have to disown him.

:p

prefer 2 more HRs

he really is pretty good
i mean, he is definitely probably one of the nice surprises this season, roy material

he's in the running for rookie of the year for sure

Ruth of the Year

does he have a nickname yet? we need to get on this. his last name is Trout for crissake, this should be low hanging fruit

Rainbow and Dizzy are taken

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutthroat_trout

too bad he couldn't have played in the same outfield as tim salmon.

or rogers smallmouth-bass

30th dinger

first 30/30 rookie

Top of the 6th, he's 4-4 with a double, triple, and 3 RBI--off Felix. Unbelievable.

MIKE TROUT	

Month	      AL WAR Rank
May	      1
June	      1
July	      1
August	      1
September     2

he's really fallen off

The Los Angeles Angels renewed the contract of AL Rookie of the Year Mike Trout for $510,000. The salary is $20,000 above the major league minimum.

seems a bit like leaving a $1 tip on a $100 check. there must be ways of saving money that don't involve insulting your best player

every player goes through this and they already gave him 1+ mil just to sign. he'll buy a few yachts once he hits arb.

but don't mind me i have trouble treating baseball contracts with the appropriate relativity

If B-R numbers are right, it doesn't look like recent Rookies of the Year have gotten massive bumps in their next season.

I don't know that throwing him an extra $500k this season buys any more loyalty when the time comes for his $200mn contract in a few seasons.

scratch that - http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/3/4/4062060/mike-trout-salary-los-angeles-angels

increases were quite a bit larger, just not in raw $$$

i'm sure he'll do v. well in arbitration and that he'll go wherever the money is when he's a free agent. if the angels had a policy of paying ppl the absolute minimum they had to, then fine. the extra $20k is weird tho.

it's obviously in trout's best interests to play hard and everything. it just seems like a bit more might be warranted in an effort to keep your best player happy and feeling valued.

http://www.billjamesonline.com/mike_trout_runs__games/

The record that Mike Trout could threaten is the post-WWII tally for runs scored: 152, collected by Jeff Bagwell in 2000. And Trout could be the first player to score more runs than games played since Rickey Henderson accomplished the feat in 1985.

My first bold prediction for 2013? That he does one or the other. Mike Trout with either score 152+ runs in 2013, or he’ll score more runs than games played.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=20105

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

While wearing Tyler Skaggs’ #45, Mike Trout hits a 454 foot home run pic.twitter.com/nsjJicTKLu

— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) July 13, 2019

I somehow managed not to notice anything else about the game while posting about Trout.

that was quite the performance.

Temporarily joining Ruth, Bonds, Greenberg, Foxx, Williams, Gehrig, Hornsby in the 1.000 OPS club.

I noticed that too the other day. I don't think it'll be that temporary, though, if you look at his career progression (new career highs four years running)--I could see him still being there three years from now.

Another way, I guess, of saying he'll breeze right past the notion of peaking at 27. Of course, I guessed wrong with Pujols when he headed over to the Angels.

Pujols was already having tons of problems with his foot before he left the Cardinals, even, and was much less of a complete, well-rounded player than Trout is. I wouldn't make any bets on Trout putting up 1.000 OPS in a few years, but he seems like he has a much better chance of it than anyone

also he has the advantage of a juiced ball

An oddity, looking at his career box: his seasonal high in total bases is 339, which I'm willing to bet would be the lowest mark if you looked at the 50 greatest hitters ever as measured by OPS+ or whatever you want. This is in no way a knock--it can easily be explained by all the walks he takes and the time he's lost to injuries. Just a quirk of the numbers.

(Oh--and if you eliminate people like Dave Orr, because I've never heard of him.)

Didn't have to look far for another walking-machine with fewer: Votto.

is it too late to make a bet with you, though? ;)

keep in mind i only bet with space bux

I have already plowed through over $40 billion in my off-the-cuff I'd-be-willing-to-bet posts.

Apart first half of Bonds’ career, Trout is the only one who is a legit great a defensive player in that list. Makes u think.

Forgot Hornsby yikes!

i suspect ruth's pitching was more valuable than hornsby's defense

Hitting and pitching didn’t happen much at the same time that being said (iirc)

Within 0.1 of Bellinger on Baseball Reference's WAR leader board. I know the season doesn't really start for some until he takes over the #1 spot, so Opening Day is imminent.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2019-batting-leaders.shtml

happy 28th

1173 G, 1301 H, 278 HR, 198 SB, .306/.419/.582, 176 OPS+, 71.7 bWAR, 72.9 fWAR

Penciled him in for 12 more HR this year and tried the Favourite Toy calculator: 14% chance at 763 HR. Which is probably a little light, seeing as his HR rate may continue to climb for another two or three seasons.

Mike Trout is now tied with Derek Jeter in career WAR via both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference. pic.twitter.com/OC6vat7vQY

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) August 18, 2019

youngest to 200 HR/SB

https://www.mlb.com/news/mike-trout-makes-history-with-200th-stolen-base

Mike Trout just hit a baseball so far that Fox Sports West had the home run graphic up before the ball even landed. pic.twitter.com/dgSw1xALT6

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 4, 2019

.@MikeTrout, BIG FLY. 😱 pic.twitter.com/aWex1Ximr5

— MLB (@MLB) September 5, 2019

Jaffe

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mike-trouts-season-is-over-which-completely-sucks/

semi-doppelganger MIKE FISH, discussed on EW podcast yesterday

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fish--000mic

me: i want mike trout
mom: we have mike trout at home
at home:

Trevor Bauer tells me Mike Trout has an exemption from the league for therapeutic HGH for thyroid issue, and that players know this and generally don't care-- says there's a whole complicated process to qualify for such an exemption from MLB.

— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) January 17, 2020

fwiw he tweeted yesterday that he hadn't heard anything about trout specifically
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOgrTA4XsAIZkZd.jpg

it'll be annoying if this ends up being a thing that follows trout everywhere

i know he had a thyroid issue before his rookie year that needed treatment, so if his exemption goes that far back i imagine it's legit and not "MLB protecting its best player"

this really brings out the whole pro sports dumpster igniters

Yikes. This is a chicken/egg slippery slope as PED abuse is aligned with thyroid issues, see Jason Giambi circa 2004.

Also reminscent of theories of Lance Armstrong's early career testicular cancer being a byproduct of his first doping programs and his numerous subsequent TUEs allowed as he was a survivor.

:(

stop it, world

can’t think of a reason someone would need growth hormone for a thyroid issue...??

will carroll tweeted that thyroid issues aren't even covered by TUEs

bauer's friend tweeted this and then deleted both tweets:

Update: Bauer now, through his P.R. people, tells us that he said or meant to say that "IF" Trout has this exemption, he has a league-approved medical exemption. Bauer clarifies that he doesn't know whether Trout has one or not.

and then:

MLB and the MLBPA jointly released the following statement saying no player has ever received an exception for HGH under the current program.

Basically, statements about Mike Trout using HGH and having an exemption for it are false. pic.twitter.com/EaND5zfC1n

— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser) January 17, 2020

Lol I think he was maybe just repeating something that Scott Brosius’ kid tweeted yesterday.

dang, didn't baseball twitter just get sonned by someone claiming to be beltran's niece, like yesterday?

yo is it true baseball twitter got sonned by a alleged burner account after a mlb beef??????

beltran's niece actually turned out to be the burner of annoying twitter person IncarceratedBob

do keep up everyone, this is all very important

One of the cooler things Mike Trout does every year: instead of having his Millville HS number retired, he comes back and gives it to the new captains every year. https://t.co/iNbhQOqIMA

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 6, 2020

Mike Trout hitting rockets isn’t exclusive to the baseball field. pic.twitter.com/tuEyIzxqQ5

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) March 2, 2020

absolute liftoff

does anyone want to know what Trout's standout skill is?

If someone wants to know what Trout’s standout skill is, then, all you have to do is tell them he is more than twice as good at hitting pitches that are in the shadow of the strike zone as any other hitter in baseball. Tell them about how tough it is for hitters to hit pitches in the shadow of the zone, and how most of them cost their team piles of runs in those situations over the course of a season, and that Trout adds more value in what are supposed to be his least-advantageous situations than most hitters do in any situation, period. Maybe tell them about run expectancy, and how we’re not necessarily measuring Trout’s value in actual runs, but in perceived runs added in a context-neural, all-things-equal situation.

well, i think my job here is done.

Wait, that’s way too clunky. How many times are you gonna use the word “situation,” buddy? Sheesh. Instead, say Trout’s standout skill is dread. Say that there is a cliché that athletes and coaches often use about how if you come up with the right game plan and execute it, then you’ll be successful, only Trout is impervious to game plans. He succeeds against the types of pitches hitters are expected to succeed at, but he also succeeds where hitters are supposed to fail, and does so to an extent that is not replicated by anyone. Because of that, pitchers have nowhere to turn. Baseball is a zero-sum game; if Trout is never at a disadvantage, then the pitcher always is.

alright then, that does clarify things, so i'll just be-

Or you can just say he’s the best player in baseball. That stands out pretty well, too.

...

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/where-mike-trout-stands-out-most/

those stats are really cool. I have to find sortable tables for all those zone stats

i like them too. now i'm curious who wins the Vladimir Guerrero Sr award for best waste pitch hitter

the world demands to know. looks like they’re sourced from baseball savant but I can’t figure out how to find them

i couldn't find it on their website either, but found it through google:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/swing-take?playerId=545361&year=2019

as usual at baseballsavant, they don't make it easy to sort or customize their data, and they bury interesting features. for example, you can switch the filter to pitchers, and i think that gives you a look at how different pitchers do in different areas of the strike zone, which is interesting in a different way

yeah, i think that's right. because it shows gerrit cole as having a -58 run value, with most of the surplus (or deficit i guess) coming from pitches in and on the edge of the zone, which makes sense for him

lol, i guess all pitchers do pretty well on the edge of the zone, duh.