May 29, 2018

The Year of the Trout

Read Devon Young writes that Mike Trout is listed at 4.9 rWAR at Baseball Reference. With the Angels now having played 54 games, 1/3 of the season, Trout is on an historic pace:

I know this is a big “if”, but If he stays healthy & keeps playing close to this pace, he could have a 12 rWAR season. According to b-Ref, there have only been five 12+ rWAR seasons by position players, & none in the past 50 years —
14.1 – Babe Ruth (1923)
12.9 – Babe Ruth (1921)
12.5 – Carl Yastrzemski (1967)
12.4 – Babe Ruth (1927)
12.1 – Rogers Hornsby (1924)
There have been 33 pitchers to post 12+ rWAR (1871-2017), but, most of that was from the 1800’s & early 1900’s, when it was a very different game. In the past 100 years (1918-current), there’ve been only 3 pitchers to pull it off —
12.2 – Dwight Gooden (1985)
12.1 – Steve Carlton (1972)
12.0 – Pete Alexander (1920)

Trout has a shot at surpassing Babe Ruth’s 1923 season. Note, too, that Mookie Betts is at 4.1 rWAR, so he has a shot at 12 rWAR as well.

3 thoughts on “The Year of the Trout

  1. Pingback: Mike Trout's 2018 Season Needs More Hype - My MLB

  2. ryan

    i have no idea why this was left as a comment on your blog. I apologize. I got incoming traffic from here but not sure why this happened. I’m sorry
    – ryan

    ReplyReply

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