Mike Trout needs his own thread

skeptical as always of advanced defensive stats, particularly for one season, but both systems had him crashing hard back down to earth last year too. plus his base running has definitely regressed, so maybe there is an issue

although you wonder how much his stolen bases in particular have taken a hit due to the confidence he has in the hitters behind him. still, if he steals at 90% he should be going a lot more

he's huge, he's like an elephant crammed into a human body, i think he's just destined to be one of those great hitters who had nice defensive and baserunning stats early on and then stopped

yeah i mean i figured that would happen in 5-7 years because of his body type, but he just turned 23 and he's always been huge

mega-slumping right now. .223/.305/.420 since the ASB

by fWAR he's been worth -0.5WAR over the past couple of weeks

rumors swirling they're gonna DFA him

the angels are still doing very well, which is the important thing I guess.

If I had to vote for MVP today, I'd go with Trout. Felix looked like a possibility two or three weeks ago, but his last two starts have been somewhat shaky. Donaldson and Gordon...that's my limitation; I'm much more confident evaluating players offensively than defensively, and the case for Donaldson or Gordon is very defense-dependent. That's today--obviously, Trout has it within him to run away with the award in September.

Having said that, this Posnanski piece gets at something I've been thinking about recently as Trout bounces between first and second on Baseball Reference's WAR list: if Donaldson or someone else ends up first, what kind of debate might come out of that?

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/talking-about-the-v-in-mvp-again/#more-2294

if you only care about hitting (as has been proven in recent years), abreu has a strong case

like that joe pos post

there was a post on fangraphs today looking deeper into Gordon's defensive numbers and the conclusion was basically that he's the exact same defensive player he's always been, but the crop of left fielders is so bad this year that the UZR baseline has shifted way down, making him look elite by comparison, when he's merely very good. i feel pretty ok not considering a legit MVP case

If he didn't have MVP clinched already, he does now. He's trailing Trout Mask Replica in ILX threads 13-2, however.

In case you missed it from last night:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/27/video-mike-trout-makes-insane-no-look-leaping-catch/

@keithlaw
Let's get him fewer at bats! #smrtbaseball “@Alden_Gonzalez: Mike Scioscia looking at the possibility of Trout batting third next year..."

kinda interesting article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/balls-in-play-expected-homers-leaderboard/

it calculates expected home runs in 2014, based on batted ball distance/angles, and then compares them to actual home runs.

it finds that mike trout was the unluckiest in baseball, with only 36 HRs in 2014 as compared to the 43 that would be expected based on his contact %, outfield flyball %, etc.

Mike Trout. he's just so unlucky

more of the same to start the new season: a dinger and a golden sombrero in his first game

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_04_06_anamlb_seamlb_1&mode=video

semi-robbed one, too

I thought the golden sombrero was 0-4 4K?

whoops i thought it was 3Ks, it's 4

FUN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_sombrero

Future weather man?

http://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/32dmtq/opinion_theory_mike_trout_maybe_secretly_wants_to/

http://www.famouspictures.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/I_want_to_believe5.jpg

HOUSTON -- Mike Trout hit the 100th homer of his career on Friday, lofting a fly ball over the left-field fence at Minute Maid Park to become the youngest player with 100 home runs and 100 stolen bases.

he's having a really great start

to his career

arguably

Ben Lindbergh on the career of Jeff "Dad" Trout

http://grantland.com/features/2015-mlb-jeff-trout-mike-trout-father/

Sure to be a contentious issue in 2016:

http://www.nj.com/phillies/index.ssf/2015/05/president_barack_obama_petitioned_to_create_mike_t.html

that headline really makes it sound like obama created the petition!

I read it exactly the same as you did ("Wow, is he ever going to catch flak here for being a little distracted...").

He's brought down his strikeouts close to where they were his first couple of years, so maybe last year was a blip.

2012 - 21.8%
2013 - 19.0%
2014 - 26.1%
2015 - 22.8%

Passed .300/.400/.600 last night.

Two more HR tonight.

I suspect Biggio may find his name on the internet a lot for the next 24 hours.

He was asked some questions on Twitter Friday as part of MLB's 'HOF Lounge,' including one from a person who asked which current player reminds him the most of himself. "Mike Trout. He's got a little more power, but the styles are similar as far as speed, power."

He really was a great player for four or five years...

damn

Just a slightly thicker neck, too!

Biggio's career-high SLG was less than .050 Trout's current career SLG.

Biggio's Similarity Score list:

Robin Yount (836) *
Derek Jeter (825)
Joe Morgan (779) *
Paul Molitor (778) *
Roberto Alomar (773) *
Cal Ripken (761) *
Johnny Damon (760)
Brooks Robinson (739) *
Lou Whitaker (739)
George Brett (735) *

Pretty fantastic list--eight inarguable HOF'ers, one guy (Whittaker) who most people feel should be in, and Damon, who was a fine player. Trout's way off--maybe sort of, if you ignore power, which would be ignoring a lot.

Actually, with 836 being the highest score, Biggio was relatively unique.

trout is on pace to surpass biggio's WAR before turning 28

another monster game tonight. 4-4 with 2 HR and a walk

Obviously, looked at overall, it's an absurd comparison. But in trying to figure out what Biggio might have been thinking, here's what I come up with. You've got to jump through a few hoops.

I assume he's thinking of himself during his prime--not his first few years as a catcher, and definitely not his last few barely hanging on. If you limit the comparison to Biggio's '94-98 prime, and compare his pro-rated numbers (per/162 games) to Trout's pro-rated over his career, there are a few similarities.

BA: .308 (B)/.306 (T)
OBP: .404 (B)/.396 (T)
Runs: 130 (B)/122 (T)
2B/3B: 41/5 (B)/36/7 (T)
BB: 80 (B)/87 (T)
SB/CS: 43/9 (B)/31/5 (T)

I'm sure he's thinking good contact, takes walks, extra-base power, steals bases, scores runs. You just have to conveniently ignore the huge HR difference (35-19), the era that Biggio played in, and all those other years when Biggio wasn't nearly as good. If he cherry-picked a different set of numbers, he could probably make a case that he was a lot like Harmon Killebrew.

I'm sure he's just thinking 'good hustle'.

6.8 WAR already, according to BBR

a sabr-inclined yankee fan just asked me 'is mike trout's career floor now mickey mantle?'

i said 'could be, but what if harper's better?'

they're both so young that picking one or the other seems foolish, but i'd lean trout

has a new skill, sort of?

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/mike-trout-los-angeles-angels-mvp-power-opposite-field-homer-al-west-080715

Mike Trout is younger than 23 of the 25 players on the Angels' Triple-A roster.

Looks like one Syracuse Chief is younger than Bryce Harper.

all AAA teams are full of olds though

that is true. tbh it points to the angels system totally sucking almost as much as trout being young and insane

no one has led the league in runs scores 4 straight years; he might. #CountingStats