All things Baseball

[Spekkio]

Mike Trout is generational 5-tool player, who didn’t play due to injury. His durability will be what hurts his legacy. Durability is very important and players should be judged for it, but let’s not ignore Trout’s enormous talent that exists when he is healthy. He is as good as people say he is.

Trout is, according to defensive metrics, a minus glove at his own position.

He has an insane OBP, which is driven primarily by a very high walk rate.

The reason Trout was 'boring' isn't because he's a white guy with no personality playing in a team no one cares about. It's because he's not a fun guy to watch play baseball, for all the same reasons that Juan Soto isn't a fun guy to watch play baseball...20-30% of his plate appearances give you blue balls and he's a butcher in the field.

Players used to say that every walk is a missed opportunity to make the HOF. We've shifted that pendulum way too far in the other direction if we're going to put Mike Trout in the same category as Mickey Mantle.

Trout is more akin to pre-steroids Barry Bonds, who no one compared to Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. But even then Bonds had over 100 more SBs by age 31, and swiping bags made him more fun to watch when he walked.