Mike Trout Is Historic, Probably

While the Halos dropped two of three at Yankee Stadium to start the second half, Mike Trout just keeps playing at an MVP pace. After a 7-14 with four doubles and four stolen bases series, Trout now leads the world with a 5.1 rWAR (Baseball-Reference wins above replacement).

Really good at baseball (Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE)

Of course, the Angels gave the rest of baseball nearly a month head start on Trout by letting him destroy Triple-A by hitting .403/.467/.623 over 20 games. But the 20-year-old has already caught up with the best players and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down after appearing in his first All Star Game during his rookie season.

Right, so, you all know Trout is really good at the baseball. At this point, everybody is saying it. The hype is getting crazy. ESPN even had an article on Monday about how incredibly well he hits low balls. It’s not our fault the words keep spilling out about him. He does something every night worth mentioning.

But just how special is Trout’s rookie season? How about the best ever? How does that sound? Sure, there is a lot of baseball left and he could regress (even if he’s showing no signs of that) but that should also help him when it comes to WAR. Even if the bat cools off, his defense and base running will keep accumulating value.

There have been 14 rookies that had an rWAR of 5.0 or better. Trout will make 15 but here’s the current list [Note: Play Index only sorted this by first season, not rookie season, so Dick Allen's 8.5 and others didn't show up. I stand by my point]…

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	Year	Age	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SB	BA	OBP	SLG
1	Ichiro Suzuki	7.5	2001	27	157	738	127	242	34	8	8	69	30	56	.350	.381	.457
2	Ted Williams	6.6	1939	20	149	675	131	185	44	11	31	145	107	2	.327	.436	.609
3	Jason Heyward	6.3	2010	20	142	623	83	144	29	5	18	72	91	11	.277	.393	.456
4	Albert Pujols	6.3	2001	21	161	676	112	194	47	4	37	130	69	1	.329	.403	.610
5	Frank Robinson	6.2	1956	20	152	667	122	166	27	6	38	83	64	8	.290	.379	.558
6	Mitchell Page	5.8	1977	25	145	592	85	154	28	8	21	75	78	42	.307	.405	.521
7	Lou Klein	5.8	1943	24	154	696	91	180	28	14	7	62	50	9	.287	.342	.410
8	Alvin Davis	5.7	1984	23	152	678	80	161	34	3	27	116	97	5	.284	.391	.497
9	Glenn Wright	5.5	1924	23	153	662	80	177	28	18	7	111	27	14	.287	.318	.425
10	Jimmie Hall	5.3	1963	25	156	571	88	129	21	5	33	80	63	3	.260	.342	.521
11	Johnny Pesky	5.2	1942	22	147	686	105	205	29	9	2	51	42	12	.331	.375	.416
12	Paul Waner	5.1	1926	23	144	618	101	180	35	22	8	79	66	11	.336	.413	.528
13	Bump Wills	5.0	1977	24	152	617	87	155	28	6	9	62	65	28	.287	.361	.410
14	Charlie Hollocher	5.0	1918	22	131	588	72	161	23	6	2	38	47	26	.316	.379	.397

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/16/2012.

Trout could be at the top of that list by season’s end. Ichiro already had an amazing professional career in Japan before being a “rookie” in 2001. Frankly, we’re talking about Trout having a better rookie season than the insane campaign Ted Williams put together in 1939. Williams ended up being a pretty good player.

Are we watching something historic? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, Mike Trout is must see TV every night.