Mike Trout needs his own thread

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

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/so-you-want-an-edge-against-mike-trout/

this is pretty amazing. trout has seen about 270 first-pitch curves in his career, depending on whose count you go by. he's swung at one of them

^^^ especially lol because ok, you're ahead 0-1 after a taken first-pitch curve; for some reason he's now even better

yeah that makes NO sense lol

i still love this guy btw but it's kind of lame how he's turned into more or less a slugger who's average-to-slghtly-above-average at everything else

he's still #4 in WAR (#3 if you dont count greinke) behind goldschmidt and harper, but i m/l agree

wouldnt be surprised if donaldson passes him by that metric before season's end and def think donaldson is the AL MVP favorite

oh i mean he's more or less the best hitter in the league, so he makes up for it, but the baserunning and defense highlights are a lot rarer these days so he's just a little less fun to watch

yeah i havent gone out of my way to watch an angels game in a while, which i used to do for his sake the last 2 years all the time - last one i saw was the recent 15-3 thrashing by the blue jays in which he went 0 for 3 and made exactly one catch, not an especially great one

It's definitely making the Harper and Trout comparisons a lot less one-sided since they're basically the same-ish player these days.

Two HR in Aug/Sept! Also:

Aug: .218/.352/.337
Sept: .242/.395/.455

two bombs tonight, Angels about to move 2.5 games out from a WC berth. "Recency bias" might get him that MVP after all.

also "being really good"

very troutian TTO game tonight -- 1 K, 2 HR, 3 BB

https://vine.co/v/expH5iXrOWJ

niiiiice

Mike Trout has a Smart Bat

http://www.halosheaven.com/2016/2/29/11133690/mike-trouts-new-smart-bat-is-going-to-impact-baseball-in-a-big-way

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/bryce-harper-is-catching-up-to-mike-trout/

3 hits today, still just at .730 ops. this must be his worst april.

he'll be fine.

i'm sure he will.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v609809983/laacws-trouts-440foot-homer/?affiliateId=clubMEGAMENU

440 feet :O

bat starting to show some signs of life

I don't understand Trout's swing. It feels like it's always the exact same, like he can bend the direction of the pitch to this will and he will just launch it. Down and away, in the middle, up, he will just hit the same way. It's fascinating.

This must be a joke, right?

http://sportsmockery.com/2016/05/source-indicates-cubs-working-on-blockbuster-trade-for-former-mvp/

Not sure whether I should be taking the bait from sportsmockery.com.

given the angel's dire outlook for the next few seasons, there have been some calls for them to consider trading trout. that would be a pretty interesting deal

trout vs kershaw tonight btw

i have no idea about whether or not the cubs are involved, but in general i'd say it would be a bad move for them, taking lots of low-cost talent across many different positions or organizational levels and converting it into one juggernaut of a player. just seems like it raises the risk, whereas having talent everywhere (like the cubs do right now) lowers risk

It doesn't really seem like an Epstein move, especially bc the Cubs are doing great without Trout. I don't know the prospects mentioned in that article but Baez, Soler, and Schwarber would not be huge losses (as much as I love Schwarber).

also seems like a much bolder move than i would associate with arte moreno/the angels

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2016&month=33&season1=2016&ind=0&team=&rost=&age=0&filter=&players=

after yet another round of "is ___ better than trout now" nonsense, trout back in his rightful place

Harper's in a slump average-wise, OBP/Slugging fine. I don't know--I think the two of them are going to jostle back and forth for the next six or seven seasons. (I agree that Trout always seems to operate in the shadow of someone else.)

Just did a quick scan for longest streaks leading the league in WAR (pitchers included). Williams (with wartime interruption), Mays, Mantle, and Bonds all had four-year streaks; Trout is leading the league right now, which if he holds on would push his streak to five years; Ruth had an eight-year streak (almost 11).

Should have checked Wagner and Hornsby.

Wagner: 8 years, almost 13 (two third-place finishes mixed in).
Hornsby: 6 years, almost 11 (a 10th and a second mixed in).

Ruth almost hit 11 years--he had a 9th-place finish in there. I guess I'd choose Wagner's streak as the best ever. Can't think of anyone else who would rank with these names.

Don't mind me, just obsessing.

I missed Pujols and Walter Johnson, and messed up with Ruth, Hornsby, and Wagner. Here are the longest streaks:

1. Ruth (6 years)
2. Walter Johnson (5 years)
3. Rogers Hornsby (4 years)
   Ted Williams (4 years)
   Willie Mays (4 years)
   Mickey Mantle (4 years)
   Barry Bonds (4 years)
   Albert Pujols (4 years)

So Trout has a real chance to match or surpass Ruth and Johnson.

Matt Sussman, BP:

Since the Angels drafted Torii Hunter Jr., also a center fielder, then this means Mike Trout has the chance to push two Toriis Hunter to the corner outfield.

The plural of Torii is Toriii.

His OPS just hit 1.000, his best ever. Who will he finish second to in this year's MVP voting, Machado or Bogarts or Altuve?

My irony's a little disingenuous as, yes, I was rooting for Cabrera in 2012. (If I'd been entrusted with an actual vote, not sure how I would have voted...head vs. heart.) But it does seem clear that, like Mays, he's going to pile up a bunch of second-place MVP finishes to whoever the year's big story is.

12 HOFers he has passed in career WAR... this year

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/07/mike-trout-los-angeles-angels-career-war-hall-of-famers-24-mlb

(of course a few of them are dubious members)

Fewer dubious ones than I would have expected.

becoming more successful in deep counts

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/heres-how-mike-trout-is-evolving/

Great headline:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mike-trouts-teammates-dont-deserve-mike-trout/

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/columns/story?id=6605429

i love reading his old scouting reports. apparently in HS he played a lot of SS (not a surprise, given his athleticism) and even dabbled with switch-hitting. can't find any video of this, sadly

"I can't tell people what I really think because they think I'm insane," Arkansas manager Bill Mosiello said from behind his desk. "Now, they're probably saying, 'You were right.'"

Scouts send Mosiello texts about Trout all the time. Here's one he got last season, when he managed him at Single-A Cedar Rapids, just a few months after Trout graduated from Millville High outside Philadelphia: Maybe this is what Mickey Mantle looked like at 18.

One said: My only prototype for him is Rickey Henderson.

Another said: I've been doing this 40 years. I've never seen a kid doing what he's doing.

The other night, two American League scouts were swapping information about Texas League players. One of them, who had just pulled into town, asked the other to describe Trout's speed. The other guy didn't say a word. He just got this canary-eating grin on his face and slowly traced the Nos. 8 and 0 in the air with his index finger.

Perhaps, in the interests of balance, we should get this out of the way immediately: Trout is not the perfect baseball-playing machine. He's a mediocre base-stealer for his speed, his arm isn't a weapon and some doubt he'll hit the ball with enough lift to be a big-time slugger in the majors. When he hits home runs, they tend to be rising line drives, more like the trajectory of a Ryan Braun home run than a Prince Fielder blast. He takes too many first-pitch strikes for some people's tastes, often hitting behind in the count.

on the way back to the dugout, he avoids eye contact. he sometimes reaches for his glove between innings and makes an imperfect connection with it. his older friend him that his dad died and he froze up. his next day he told him he was sorry but the mood had changed. his speed from home to 1B on routine ground balls to 3B declined significantly between his rookie and 4th seasons. he accidentally ran into the doorway on his way out of the shower. his WAR/PA rolling 20-game average rose and smoothed back down. his bloodied dental floss didn't fly entirely into the trash can. his z-swing % rose from 55.6 to 59.% from 2015 to 2016.

his fart butt farted butt fart

trout cycle watch: HR and a triple through 3 innings