High fives for everybody (Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-US PRESSWIRE)

Trout had a season for the ages. His .326/.399/.564 line and 30 home runs led all rookies while his 127 runs, 49 stolen bases and four stolen home runs led baseball. Trout finished 2012 with a 10.7 rWAR (Baseball-Reference wins above replacement). While WAR isn’t perfect or the end-all be-all by any means, it is a good reference point and a reasonable all-in-one stat for attempting to determine a player’s total value. And 10.0 WAR’s don’t come around that often.

Trout’s 10.7 WAR is the best in the last 20 years by anyone not named Barry Bonds (11.6 WAR in 2001 and 2002) and is good for the 20th best season in the history of hitters. It’s more impressive considering six of the seasons above Trout’s on the list belong to Babe Ruth. So did Trout have the greatest rookie season of all time? It’s a good thing I did some quick research or this would be an awkward place to end the post.

Yes. Trout had the greatest rookie season in the history of the game. Okay, he pretty much had the greatest rookie season of all time. Trout gets a boost in his WAR from being terrific in center field and on the base paths. His closest competition is Shoeless Joe Jackson who posted a 9.0 rookie rWAR but we’ve come a long way in evaluating defense since 1911. Jackson hit an incredible .408/.468/.590 with 41 steals while definitely playing some kind of defense somewhere in the outfield. It’s possible Jackson’s defense was undervalued. So Jackson has the best case against Trout but until there’s a time machine, I’m giving Trout the nod.

Also rans. Mark Fidrych won the AL Rookie of the Year in 1976 with a 9.3 rWAR. In my book, Fidrych gets bonus points for being a crazy person. The awesome kind of crazy. Dick Allen (8.5), Ichiro (7.5) and Fred Lynn (7.1) also fit in somewhere if you’re using the Baseball-Reference formula for WAR. If you prefer Fangraph’s WAR (Trout had a 10.0 fWAR), then Dwight Gooden (8.4), Ted Williams (7.9) and Albert Pujols (7.7) also deserve some love but fall short of Trout. As long as we’re discussing rookie fWAR, Trout (10.0) and Jackson (9.7) are a coin flip.

Congrats to Mike Trout for being the youngest player to ever win the AL ROY and most likely being the greatest rookie of all time. Trout joins Tim Salmon (also unanimous) as the only Angels to win Rookie of the Year. Trout already has over 30% of Salmon’s career WAR. Sorry, I can’t help myself.

Major League Baseball has some pretty complicated rules. And with all of the loopholes, I imagine there is just a sea of nerds in cubicles crunching numbers and adding post-its to large stacks of files. I tend to imagine things in pre-computer 1960′s filing methods. Angels uber-prospect, Mike Trout, accumulated 123 at bats and somewhere under 45 days of actual MLB service time. Once a player goes over 130 at bats or 45 days of service time, that player loses his rookie status. So, Trout should still be considered a rookie (and a prospect) for the 2012 season, right? Not so fast, hot shot.

The OC Register’s Sam Miller (follow him @SamMillerOCR, trust me) did all of the heavy lifting and you can read the full details there. But this is the gist of it after Trout was called up and optioned for the first time…

Since Trout wasn’t on the 40-man roster before he was called up, he hadn’t previously been optioned, so his time in Double-A before that didn’t count. He was then called back up after only 17 days, and spent the rest of the year with the Angels, so his option didn’t technically happen. “The service time has to go somewhere,” says the Angels’ Tim Mead, which means it counts as major league service time.

Since Trout wasn’t optioned for 20 days, he was credited with 55 days of service time, killing his rookie status. Does this matter in the grand scheme of things? Not really. Trout might miss out on some trophy hardware and another year of hype on prospect lists but I think the secret is already out. He’s really good. Maybe it would be a bigger deal to a team like Tampa Bay, if Trout becomes eligible for arbitration/free agency a year sooner because of this.

All of this might be moot anyway because Sam Miller updated his post explaining MLB has yet to officially rule on Trout’s status. What was the point of this post then, you ask? Hey, look at that dog wearing a hat! *ducks out the back door*

Trumbo ROY Snubbing: Classic Case Of When OBP Goes Wrong

Tampa Bay Rays Rookie starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson was named American League Rookie Of The Year Monday receiving 17 of 28 first-place votes.  Hellickson is certainly a deserving award winner.  He was outstanding for most of 2011 posting a 13-10 record with a 2.95 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. What is perhaps most impressive –  Is that Hellickson  held hitters to a .210 batting average, which was the third lowest number  in the majors. Still he pitched every 5th day. Meanwhile in Anaheim –  Mark Trumbo – he of the ridiculously low .291 On Base Percentage played virtually every day and almost single-handedly kept a team that had no business being a contender in the American League west in contention. Trumbo led all AL rookies  in SLG, HR, ISO, and yes RBI’s. He finished second in the voting.

What’s clear from Trumbo’s second place finish is that he was likely overlooked as a result of his poor On Base Percentage. This is yet another case where one stat (see WAR) is vastly being over emphasized. There are a wealth of stats at our disposal to gauge player performance. To sell a player like Trumbo short on the basis of one stat is severely flawed. Mark impacted a larger portion of his teams success than Hellickson. He played everyday. Just as voters appeared to gloss over Hellickson’s 4.44 FIP –  Trumbo’s OBP should have merely been one part of the equation to tell the full story.

Onto the Monday Links:

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