JustATroutFan

The thing about the 2014 Angels was that they had a lot of things go their way. They had guys who were surprising many people and put up good seasons and had career seasons like Richards, Shoemaker, and even Cory Rasmus (LMAO). If they didn't contribute a lot that season, I don't think the Angels would have been in the postseason. No doubt the offense was pretty good but it wasn't like the 2015 Blue Jays or anything. That was Trout's "worst" full season up to this point. It's funny looking back at it but people were really worried about Trout's future as a hitter. A .287/.377/.561 in another "Year of the Pitcher" when the baseballs weren't juiced led people to being worried about him, think about that for a second. it's too bad that non of those guys ever put up good seasons again, which is not shocking that the Angels fell back into playing mediocre baseball, at best. Richards is fighting for his career at the Major League level, Shoemaker was DFA by the Twins like last week, and Rasmus isn't even playing at the big leagues nowadays. If Richards or Shoemaker had performed well in 2015 like in 2014, the Angels probably would have made the postseason in 2015. If I remember correctly, the Angels would have made the postseason in 2015 if they had defeated the Rangers on the last day of the regular season. 

As people on here have pointed out, he's been injury prone since 2017, which I hate just by knowing that. He was on the DL/IL in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. And that's not counting 2020m where he lost over 100 games because of the coronavirus epidemic. He's lost like 50 career home runs since 2017 because of injuries and coronavirus. In a perfect world, he would have like less than 50 home runs to go for 400 career home runs. He probably won't get the all-time home run record once he hangs up his cleats but he would have a better chance if the league decides to juice the baseballs again like they did in the steroids era (1993-2009) to make many guys look like Trout at the plate with their inflated numbers. At least he can do no worse than being tied for having the most legitimate MVP awards (3) next to his name. A-Rod doesn't make the list because he admitted that he juiced with the Rangers, so that makes it one fewer legitimate MVP next to his name since he won one in 2003, his last season with the Rangers. Bonds only has three legit MVPs next to his name, which are the first three that he won. The last four, asterisk right next to all of them. 

It's Arte who needs to open his eyes.

It's not even close. Ohtanimania is way more talked about than Wally World. Japan is no doubt following how Ohtani does, especially when he's doing incredible things this season. What Ohtani has done this season is being really followed by two countries. And Wally World isn't even bigger than Troutmania (2012) either. Wally World, I doubt not too many people know what that means, nor did it help change baseball. What Trout did in 2012 with his excellent all-around play helped changed the game. Many people only know of WAR (Wins Above Replacement) because of what Trout did in 2012. But Trout's 2012 performance has its effects on baseball. Because of him, guys like Heyward and Gorodn both got paid like superstar players even though they were never on that level because of wins above replacement. And teams know where a player plays his best defense now because of defensive WAR. A good example is Machado. His defense at shortstop is not good but his defense at third base is terrific and defensive WAR proves that. And the Padres currently puts him at third base. All of that ties back to Trout's 2012 season. 

My father is still stuck in the era of BA and HR, and just barely has adapted to SLG and OBP - and only when I remind him. He often says, "he's not a very good hitter" when a guy has a mediocre BA, despite what his OBP and SLG are.

Canseco / McGwire was pretty amazing

Manny and Ortiz? The duo is disqualified immediately. Yeah, they're the best cheating duo in MLB history. Probably hung out with each other 24/7 and had fun using steroids. I'll say the best duo is Ruth and Gehrig. They were both great at the same time for awhile. It's going to be hard for any duo to top what they did on the diamond. 

Speaking of hacking power hitter, Baez (his performance has falling off a lot from 2019), assuming he can find it with the bat from now until the end of the regular season, is going to be the next player who nobody would say is a superstar and will still get paid like a superstar in a few months. Say he finishes with a .260/.300/.500 slash line for the 2021 regular season and continues to play terrific defense, a massive contract is coming his way, something like a contract that is worth $180 million over 7 years. So a solid, albeit not great, hitter with terrific defense will get paid superstar money if that is the case with Baez by the start of this year's free agency. Looks like a couple of players that I went over yesterday. Baez's WAR for the 2018 and 2019 regular season were 6.4 and 6.7 on Baseball Reference. If Baez does indeed get that massive contract, he should thank Trout for being a big part of why he got the contract. Gordon and Heyward both should be thanking Trout for how much they got paid after the 2015 regular season. Geez, I wonder if Figgins would have gotten something like a contract that was worth $72 million over 4 years if Wins Above Replacement had existed back in 2009. Figgins had a WAR of over 7.0 in the 2009 regular season, including a 3.3 defensive Wins Above Replacement that same season. 

Interesting how quickly things can change. Two years ago, the top four players according to fWAR were Alex Bregman, Mike Trout, Christian Yelich, and Cody Bellinger. I'll add two more names: Anthony Rendon at 7th and Mookie Betts at 9th.
Now look at how those six are doing this year, ranked by fWAR among players with 50+ PA:
25. Betts: .253/.371/.471, 136 wRC+, 2.5 fWAR
33. Trout: .333/.466/.624, 193 wRC+, 2.3 fWAR 
102. Bregman: .275/.359/.428, 120 wRC+, 1.2 fWAR
134. Yelich: .253/.409/.404, 127 wRC+, 0.9 fWAR 
206. Bellinger: .224/.348/.382, 108 wRC+, 0.5 fWAR
223. Rendon: .230/.313/.360, 87 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR
Betts is having a solid year, and not far from his typical season (2018 clearly looking to be an outlier). His numbers are slowly creeping up, and chances are he finishes around 6 WAR, but if I'm the Dodgers I'm wondering if a 12-year contract was such a great idea. Trout has been injured, but was his usual great self. But the others...all have fallen through the roof. 
Meanwhile, a new group of "young gods" have risen up to replace the "titans." The Three Juniors--Vlad, Tatis, and Acuna--are in the top 4 (along with a resurgent/healthy Carlos Correa) and--along with Juan Soto (who has underperformed this year) and new pup Wander Franco--considered to be the future top players in the game, a future which has already arrived.
What is striking is how quickly this has changed. This is not to say that some or all of the above players won't bounce back, but it also seems that a sea change is occurring, a youth movement, if you will. Even if those guys bounce back, they will find the top to be a more crowded place, and most of them have likely been surpassed already by the top young players.
It isn't like it is only this year. Bregman, Yelich, Bellinger, and Trout all had down years (relatively speaking) in 2020, but it was easy to write that off as the result of the unusual nature of that season. But now I'm not so sure. Trout's ability is still there, and for a while it looked like he had actually improved, but then he slumped mightily and was injured, so at the very least, even if he remains the best player in the sport for another few years, it will be with the phantom of an injury-prone label. 
I don't know what is up with the other three. It could be that Bregman was greatly benefited in 2018-19 by the Astros nefarious approach, and has simply dropped down to his true talent level. But Yelich and Bellinger? The latter has been injured most of the year, but both seem like shadows of their 2019 selves.
The times they are a-changin, or just off-years coinciding, or maybe somewhere in between?

I mean, the Dodgers currently employ a girl beater (Urias) on their team...

One different with Pujols is that Pujols whole plate approach changed, probably starting in 2011 or even late 2010 (he had a poor second half, so I think started declining after his ridiculous first half of 2010). Pujols became a hacking power hitter. Rendon is far more disciplined and, I think, won't do that. So at worst, he'll stabilize at a lower level - maybe .280/.370/.460 - for a few years, and thus still be a ~4 WAR player. We can hope for more than that, though.

So you're saying that Trout is to WAR what Ruth was to HR? Ha. Anyhow, I think even today's WAR-informed voters would have a hard time not giving it to the Triple Crown winning Miggy Cabrera. 
I agree that Trout fueled WAR popularity, but I'm not sure he was the main, and definitely not, only reason it is so popular. The sabermetrics movement goes back 40 years to old grand-daddy Bill James, and has gradually increased in popularity. Trout simply showcased the value of WAR.
But yes, I agree that some players became more valued than they would have, if WAR didn't exist. On the other hand, it may be that baseball orgs have their own in-house metrics that are "WAR-esque" (or better), that they would have used to recognize the value of the Gordons and Heywards of the world.
p.s. I guess you don't believe in paragraph breaks? 

Good points, although I think you undersell Betts a bit. Sure, he only had one "Troutian" season, but he's had a bunch of other great ones. Trout is one of the rare players whose default mode is 9 WAR; Betts has averaged 7.6 WAR over 162 games for his career, which I think is at least borderline top 10 of all time. After he declines a bit, he could still be top 30, which is pretty damn great.
But yeah, Trout is on another level. As great as the Three Juniors and Soto are, and how great I think Franco will be, I don't see them having a ten-year span in which they averaged over 9 WAR per season. Only a few players have done that in baseball history.

Go Ohtani, GO HALOS!

Glad we didn't try to sign him.

Pujols' "improvement" with the Dodgers is just regression to the mean. His overall numbers this year are very much in line with the last five years or so. Consider his wRC+ from 2017-21: 77, 88, 91, 77, 92.  Meaning, he remains what he's been: a below average hitter, mediocre defender, and terrible baserunner.
This is not to say that the new environment hasn't catalyzed improvement; maybe Pujols needed the ego boost. And, in the end, I'd rather see Jared Walsh at 1B full-time and Taylor Ward get the at-bats. Meaning, at worst Ward is no worse than Dodgers Pujols, and we don't have to deal with watching Albert trundle around the bases.

I don't see it as a coincidence that Gordon and Heyward both got paid superstar money in 2015 because of WAR. No one would have said any of those two were at one point superstar players at the big leagues after the 2015 regular season. You're right that Trout's not the only reason that WAR became famous because the people who created WAR should get recognition for that too. But he made it famous. The same can be said for Ruth. He didn't invent the long ball. And people were already hitting a few, not many, before he did. But he did make home runs popular just like what Trout did for WAR. In terms of changing the sport that they played in, I'll add Curry in the list and what he's done when it comes to shooting threes. He's hitting like 400 threes (!) a season these days. I once thought that hitting even 200 threes in a season was a lot for a player. He's doing twice as many. Now the NBA is becoming a league where the obsessions for threes is off the charts and that is because of Curry. He didn't invent it because he helped changed the way the game is played and old school folks hate that teams are shooting more threes than ever. 

Betts and Bellinger, the two so-called Trout challengers for the crown of best player in all of baseball, both living off one fluky season at the plate. This is what makes Trout's so great, he puts up elite seasons at the plate every single season. Someone will have one fluky season like them and someone will get caught up in the moment and think they're all of a sudden on Trout's level. Trout is the Jordan of MLB. He's on a level all by himself. Not just that but like Jordan, Trout helped changed his sport. Trout's greatness helped changed the way people value a player's overall performance. That can be put in three words: Wins Above Replacement. Trout made Wins Above Replacement famous and if it weren't for him, I doubt guys like Alex Gordon and Jason Heyward would have got superstar money. And neither of those two guys were every superstar players. And teams know what position a player is best suited on defense just looking at defensive WAR. An example would be Machado, who is an excellent defensive third basemen but not so much as a defensive shortstop just looking at his defensive WAR. 

Betts and Bellinger, the two so-called Trout challengers for the crown of best player in all of baseball, both living off one fluky season at the plate. This is what makes Trout's so great, he puts up elite seasons at the plate every single season. Someone will have one fluky season like them and someone will get caught up in the moment and think they're all of a sudden on Trout's level. Trout is the Jordan of MLB. He's on a level all by himself. Not just that but like Jordan, Trout helped changed his sport. Trout's greatness helped changed the way people value a player's overall performance. That can be put in three words: Wins Above Replacement. Trout made Wins Above Replacement famous and if it weren't for him, I doubt guys like Alex Gordon and Jason Heyward would have got superstar money. And neither of those two guys were every superstar players. And teams know what position a player is best suited on defense just looking at defensive WAR. An example would be Machado, who is an excellent defensive third basemen but not so much as a defensive shortstop just looking at his defensive WAR. 

Betts and Bellinger, the two so-called Trout challengers for the crown of best player in all of baseball, both living off one fluky season at the plate. This is what makes Trout's so great, he puts up elite seasons at the plate every single season. Someone will have one fluky season like them and someone will get caught up in the moment and think they're all of a sudden on Trout's level. Trout is the Jordan of MLB. He's on a level all by himself. Not just that but like Jordan, Trout helped changed his sport. Trout's greatness helped changed the way people value a player's overall performance. That can be put in three words: Wins Above Replacement. Trout made Wins Above Replacement famous and if it weren't for him, I doubt guys like Alex Gordon and Jason Heyward would have got superstar money. And neither of those two guys were every superstar players. And teams know what position a player is best suited on defense just looking at defensive WAR. An example would be Machado, who is an excellent defensive third basemen but not so much as a defensive shortstop just looking at his defensive WAR. 

That was still in a time where the league was juicing the baseballs to benefit offenses around the league and to keep fans in the seats. Juiced baseballs made guys like Hidalgo and Tim Salmon in 2000 look like Trout at the plate. If you look at their slash lines in 2000, i looks better than Trout's in some particular years. And yet, their OPS+ were both under 145 that season. Trout's worst OPS+ since 2012 is 168. Big gap. It's harder to hit in Trout's era than it was from 1993-2009 (hitters inflated offensive period, the juiced baseball period), especially when you have hot and cold zones that wasn't around then and tells pitchers what type of pitches a hitter has trouble with (ex: Trout with the high fastball). 

Upton was going to find his form eventually. He's never been a guy who would put up an OPS under .700. But yes, he was hitting really well at the leadoff spot before landing on the IL. Maddon's decision to put Upton in the leadoff spot was a great move. I don't think Upton would have an OPS over .800 right now if he wasn't hitting at the leadoff spot. Hitting in front of someone like Ohtani has benefited him. More good pitches to hit. I think Upton will still be leading off games once he comes back. 

All agreed, but those guys were nowhere near the only ones. It was likely a pretty large chunk of players in the league at the time.

I'll add in little to no testing for steroids (I guess that was up and running by like 05-06, but definitely not for these seasons JATF is mentioning), and average fastball velocity being like 4-5mph lower than now.

Suspend the cheater Bauer.