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.

On Monday, The BBWAA revealed the voting percentages for the 2012 Hall of Fame class. I wasn’t surprised that the lone inductee was Barry Larkin. The Baseball Bloggers Alliance recommended Larkin and Jeff Bagwell while FanSided would have just enshrined Bagwell. You can view my ballot for both here.

I could complain about the irrational Jack Morris love but that’s been beaten worse than Joe Pesci in Casino. At least he was buried alive and it was over. Instead, since I’m an Angels blog, let’s focus on Tim Salmon for a minute. I, through some randomness, started following the Angels when Salmon and J.T. Snow began their major league careers. A weird core to hitch your wagon to, indeed.

Salmon won the American League Rookie of the Year in 1993 when he hit 31 home runs and a .283/.382/.536 line. Angels GM Jerry Dipoto finished eigth in the ROY voting that year. After 14 seasons, Salmon ended up with 299 home runs, 1,016 RBI and a .282/.385/.498 line. None of that exactly screams Hall of Fame.

Salmon received five votes for the HOF but fell well short of the 5% needed to stay on the ballot next year. The BBWAA Salmon supporters have yet to reveal themselves online. It was a one-and-done for Salmon.

*SIDE STORY* My writng partner, Derwood, at the hanging-by-a-thread site Off Base Percentage attended the 2010 All Star Game in Anaheim. He openly despises the Angels, but free is free and he was off to the ASG. He did promise to bring me a souviner in lieu of scoring me a ticket. So when he ran into Salmon, he saw an opportunity. The exchange did not go well. You should click here and read all about it. It is hilarious. Got my autographed hat though.

St. Louis Cardinals' David Freese (23) reacts to his game-winning home run in the 11th inning that gave the Cardinals a series-tying 10-9 win against the Texas Rangers in Game 6 of the World Series.(Dallas Morning News)

Well that was fun.

David Freese‘s walk-off eleventh inning blast to dead center off little-used Mark Lowe capped off what proved to be another in an ever-mounting list of late inning Game Six heroics in World Series lore. Game Seven may be packed with pressure on both sides, but Game Six is where memories are made.

Tonight’s finale certainly will not be able to live up to yesterday’s predecessor. If it does, I’m not sure my eyeholes can take it. While we still have last night’s epic Epic still fresh in our minds let’s see where it ranks among the best Game Sixes in recent memory:

(more…)