Mike Trout Is Now an Average Hall of Famer

He's pretty good at this game.

I'd vote him in.

When it's all said and done he might go down as the best player of all time. He's easily on pace to finish his career as the best player of the modern era. Then again, that Ohtani kid is pretty good to.

It's way to early to say this, particularly for Ohtani, but it's at least theoretically possible the Halos will have had two of the best players of all time on their roster at the same time. Crazy to even think of the possibility.

love Trout, but even at his current pace he will never touch Babe Ruth.

For the past 6 years the Angels have arguably had the two best RH hitters of all-time, or at least in the Modern Era . Granted, Pujols hasn't been "great" since coming over to the AL, but he will still go down as one of the greatest hitters of all-time (assuming he's clean).

The Angels have never had the pitching to compete. As much as they've loaded up on the talent in the line seems like they've ignored their rotation.

With that said...Trout is a incredible player. He's the one guy who scares me no matter what situation it is. I always expect he's going to come through some way or another when he walks to the plate. A lot time people say 'Oh yeah you want to pitch to PlayerXXXX with the bases empty'. Well I don't like seeing him come up with the bases empty. He's always a threat and there's no good time to see him step into the box. Even if you walk him he can hurt you.

I'm always blown away at how fast the guy is especially for his size. He's what 240 lbs and he flys. It's insane that a guy his size can track down fly balls and steal bases like he does. It just doesn't register with me.

Dude is incredible and I loathe that he's in the same division as my team. Besides that he's also a good guy you can actually root for. Lately the greats of the game have been hard to root for but Trout is one I don't mind pulling for as long as he isn't playing the Astros.

Silent For Too Long said:

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When it's all said and done he might go down as the best player of all time. He's easily on pace to finish his career as the best player of the modern era. Then again, that Ohtani kid is pretty good to.

It's way to early to say this, particularly for Ohtani, but it's at least theoretically possible the Halos will have had two of the best players of all time on their roster at the same time. Crazy to even think of the possibility.

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But he's got to continue it for a long long time. Here are how to compares to a few other recent greats.

Trout Career (974 Games)
215 HRs
597 RBI
732 Runs
.980 OPS
170 wRC+

Pujols (01-17, 1091 Games)
282 HRs
861 RBI
847 Runs
1.040 OPS
166 wRC+

A-Rod (94-01, 954 Games)
241 HRs
730 RBI
760 Runs
.949 OPS
140 wRC+

Griffey (89-95, 917 Games)
189 HRs
585 RBIs
570 Runs
.915 OPS
140 wRC+

He trails in some of the counting metrics, but overall he's been easily as good. A-Rod improved after his first 7 years. Griffey had a few more great years, but declined from all time greatness pretty significantly. Pujols slowed quite bit too in his 30s.

Also, please shoot me if we're talking Ohtani as an all time great after 91 ABs and 7 games pitched.

Trout's all-time numbers are going to be hurt considerably by walks. Lots of walks.

he's only reached 100 RBI twice in his career. And he may not do it in 2018 either.

just 28 RBI this year approaching the 1/3 pole.

the Angels have to find bonafide #1 and #2 hitters, so Trout can always bat 3rd.

for reference...Hank Aaron had eleven 100-RBI seasons.

Jeff Bagwell had eight 100-RBI seasons. And in one of those seasons he drew 149 walks. So it can be done

Miguel Cabrera 2007 - 2013 (1097 games)
261 HR
856 RBI
.992 OPS (average, not exact number)

I know he is mediocre defensively, but if we're gonna include Pujols...

Edit to mention that I just picked a 7 season stretch, but his years before that weren't shabby either.

Interesting that Trout doesn't have a 40 double season. Even if you add his triples, which are often a "speed penalty." Of course, he also turns lots of single into doubles by stealing.

It's hard to compare Trout to guys like Cabrera and Pujols because of his speed/athleticism. As mentioned, you cant just walk the guy, as he is a problem on the base paths. Early Arod would be a good comparison to Trout, but then Arod completely changed to a slugger (roids?) while Trout has essentially remained the same over his (young) career.

Every kid playing baseball should watch and emulate Trout. He is very talented, which obviously helps, but he doesn't seem to take any of his natural ability for granted, and plays with effort.

Just makes me sick to know what could have been in Josh Hamilton. He had all the physical tools and natural ability to be an all-time great, but unfortunately, we all know his story.

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Also, please shoot me if we're talking Ohtani as an all time great after 91 ABs and 7 games pitched

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Let me be perfectly clear that I'm not saying that. I just can't think of another player that flashed as much potential as he has in such a short time.

Make no mistake about it, IF he comes close to showing his full potential over a long career he'll be in the conversation.


What makes Trout so exceptional, though, is not just his play at the plate but everything else he does. Thats why he keeps putting up double digit WAR seasons, and is currently on pace to at least flirt with Babe's single season WAR record.

No one is doubting Trout's ability but I'd be extremely shocked if he ended up anywhere near 14 WAR to end the year. If there's any player who can do it, it's definitely him but there's just no chance he ends up near that.

Silent For Too Long said:

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What makes Trout so exceptional, though, is not just his play at the plate but everything else he does. Thats why he keeps putting up double digit WAR seasons, and is currently on pace to at least flirt with Babe's single season WAR record.

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Trout has exactly 1 season with a WAR north of 10 and its was 10.0. He's nowhere close to Ruth's best season.

Edit: Ruth's 14.1 is the best since the dead ball era. Lots of pitchers were better than that before then. And I would have never guessed who had the second best since 1920. 1,000,000 internet points to anyone who gets it without looking.

Barry Bonds?

Nope. Take out Ruth and Bonds has the 8th best live ball era WAR.

Ruth has the second best single season WAR.

AustinAg2K said:

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Ruth has the second best single season WAR.

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Ruth's second best season ties for third. Its a 3 way tie.

Are you looking at fWAR or bWAR?

Baseball Reference

Had to look it up, because I was tired of not coming up with a reasonable answer...

Even better that the second best season of all time came at a mere $450,000...

mathguy86 said:

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Silent For Too Long said:

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What makes Trout so exceptional, though, is not just his play at the plate but everything else he does. Thats why he keeps putting up double digit WAR seasons, and is currently on pace to at least flirt with Babe's single season WAR record.

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Trout has exactly 1 season with a WAR north of 10 and its was 10.0. He's nowhere close to Ruth's best season.

Edit: Ruth's 14.1 is the best since the dead ball era. Lots of pitchers were better than that before then. And I would have never guessed who had the second best since 1920. 1,000,000 internet points to anyone who gets it without looking.

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fWAR has a 10.0 in 12, a 10.1 in 13, a 9.3 in 15 and a 9.6 in 16. I could have sworn the last time I checked 15 and 16 wer 10+'s, bust I stand corrected.

STILL. 4 seasons of 9.3+ is pretty remarkable.

Edit to add: He's currently on pace to get really close. ~13.5. That would be, by far, the best season since Ruth's 14.1. If that's "nowhere close" then such a thing doesn't exist.


And, yes, a bunch of pitchers who doctored the ball to make it unhittable had better WARs.

WAR gets freaky with extreme pitching stats. And things like 350 innings, 30 CG and 10 SHO in a season are extreme today. It's a metric that breaks down for that era.

On the discussion about WAR and historical comparisons, ESPN: Mike Trout is on pace for the greatest season in MLB history.

mathguy86 said:

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Edit: Ruth's 14.1 is the best since the dead ball era. Lots of pitchers were better than that before then. And I would have never guessed who had the second best since 1920. 1,000,000 internet points to anyone who gets it without looking.

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Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Yeah. Never would have guessed.

TXAggie2011 said:

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On the discussion about WAR and historical comparisons, ESPN: Mike Trout is on pace for the greatest season in MLB history.

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Does that consider 100 RBI seasons? Hank Aaron did that 11 times. He also hit a moderate number of home runs each season over the course of two declades, and was an all star 20 times.

Let's see Trout do that in his short career with its showy MVPs, best ever advanced metrics, and hall of fame career if he Jim Browned it now.

I only snark because W is worth responding to. Trout's first years of his career are better than any comparable period in Hank's entire career.

TXAggie2011 said:

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mathguy86 said:

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Edit: Ruth's 14.1 is the best since the dead ball era. Lots of pitchers were better than that before then. And I would have never guessed who had the second best since 1920. 1,000,000 internet points to anyone who gets it without looking.

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Cocaine is a helluva drug.

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Are we allowed to say that?

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The Angels have never had the pitching to compete.

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When you sign a WAY past his prime Josh Hamilton and give him the money you gave him, who's fault is that?

91AggieLawyer said:

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The Angels have never had the pitching to compete.

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When you sign a WAY past his prime Josh Hamilton and give him the money you gave him, who's fault is that?

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And the Pujols contract... and the CJ Wilson contract...

The Angels are treading water again this season, surely the Angels get rid of Scioscia if 2018 ends without making the postseason, right?

When do the Angels look at trading Trout? He's got 2.5 seasons left at $33 per, and the Angels have exactly ONE postseason trip (3 games) with Trout. Do they give it another off-season and/or wait to see with a new manager?