Mike Trout Hits Birthday Bomb

If the cliche holds true and he’s just out there trying to win games, Mike Trout did not have a very good 21st birthday during Tuesday night’s 10-4 loss to the A’s. C.J. Wilson and Bartolo Colon were especially unkind to the youngster. Wilson couldn’t buy a strike giving up 6 runs (3 earned) on 9 hits and 5 walks in 5 innings. Colon gifted the birthday boy a pair of strikeouts looking and a ground out. But then this happened in the top of the 8th (watch the video).

Trout absolutely crushed his 20th home run of the season to dead center off Travis Blackley who had no reason to turn his head after it left the bat. I’m surprised that cameraman didn’t take cover. Of course Trout hit a home run on his birthday. Would you expect anything less at this point?

So the home run on the 21st birthday thing has to be rare, right? Indeed. He’s the 5th in MLB history to do it. Again, see if any of these names look familiar; Jason Heyward, Alex Rodriguez, Frank Robinson and Ted Williams.

Trout’s 7.1 Baseball-Reference wins above replacement in now leads baseball by a full win over Andrew McCutchen. Even though he’s 21, this still counts as Trout’s 20-year-old season in B-R’s eyes. The 7.1 WAR puts his 20-year-old season behind Mel Ott (7.3), Al Kaline (8.0) and A-Rod (9.2). And he’s also the youngest player ever to record a 20 home run, 30 stolen base season.

By the end of this season, I will have made Mike Trout’s case to be elected to the Hall of Fame before the ballots come out in December. MIKE TROUT!

[img thanks to my kick-ass paint skills]