AZMike

"Walks [from pitchers] are a false stat" - Jerry Dipoto* *I actually made this up. Dipoto AFAIK never actually said this but it's consistent with his moves.

part douche, part turd sandwich

Mariners would win the division in this scenario.

Trout doesn't have any of Torii Hunter, Kendrys Morales, or a non-crippled Albert Pujols batting behind him anymore.

This season sucks. Angels won't even sniff the playoffs and many of my favorite players are getting injured left and right.

I actually read an article on Fangraphs describing it as the statistical best hitting season by a pitcher since Babe Ruth. That said, the idea that Angels might have actually been better off paying Greinke $25M a year to DH and bat cleanup on a regular basis instead of signing Josh Hamilton is very amazing.

Greinke went 1-2 with an RBI in today's game. Greinke has accumulated more war as a batter than Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols combined.

Ryan Madson got paid nearly $14M dollars to not pitch for two years. Boras is a wizard.

Scioscia's family might be reading this board

watch Oakland sign him for league minimum only for him to turn into Dennis Eckersley.

The Angels got swept in a four-game series by the f'n Astros. This season I didn't let myself get "buttercupped" into believing in this team like I did over and over in 2012

you don't think we'll win at least one game ... *looks up upcoming pitchers* ... with Williams, Richards or Hanson starting?

That would be one of the most epic comebacks ever. ...after which point we would promptly lose the wildcard game.

Tony Reagins : Jerry Dipoto :: George W Bush : Barack Obama

Josh Hamilton -- raising the OBP of the batter immediately preceding him in the lineup since 2013

The better comparison, IMO, is between Mike Trout and JB Shuck. According to baseball reference WAR, Mike Trout's defense is a full win WORSE than JB Shuck. There were at least three games in which JB Shuck allowed multiple batted balls to land for doubles or triples which would have been caught by Mike Trout or Peter Bourjos. I actually believe the Angels would be a few wins *higher* in the standings had Peter Bourjos been healthy all season, and Trout been in LF instead of Shuck for those games.

The title of this thread is "Trout's dWAR is... [-1.5]" http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2013-value-batting.shtml#players_value_batting::15 Trout is ranked 7th worst in baseball in defensive WAR. Worse than Cabrera. In fact, Trout actually slighlty leads Cabrera in offensive WAR. I do think this is at least partially a funciton of opportunities though. Compared to last year, Angels pitching is much worse. We have a lot more balls sailing out of the park and fewer playable flyballs for Trout and others to work with.

Last year Trout's baserunning and defense was considerably better than this year. While I don't agree at all with the baseball reference stat suggesting Trout is one of the worst defenders in baseball, he has had a lot of key misplays and his overall range has not been nearly as good as last season. His number of stolen bases and extra bases taken is also down (IMO this is largely the fault of morons like Pujols and Scioscia but I digress...) Combine that with the fact that as you pointed out Cabrera is having a better season (though likely won't get a triple crown) and IMO Cabrera should win MVP with Trout second. Last year Trout should have been the clear MVP.

Josh Hamilton gets that much to hack at ~4-5 pitches.

Trout should have won MVP last year. Had Josh kept using tobacco a bit longer and hit a few more homers Trout might have actaully won. This year if the season were to end to day it should go to Cabrera, IMO. Cabrera is actually having a better season than last year. He'll probably win by a smaller margin though because of a cerrtain roided out first baseman from Baltimore spoiling a triple crown.

Yep. Pitchers like Weaver and Wilson get unfairly penalized in their personal stats for playing on a team with a blowpen, IMO.

we might be able to spoil the Rangers from winning the division (say, by shuffling around the rotation so as to start Blanton, Hanson, Richards/Williams in our next series against the A's ), we won't keep them out of the playoffs. Problem is in september both the Rangers and A's finish their season with the vast majority of their games against the Angels, Mariners, and Astros. Second place in the AL West will land a wild card spot for sure.

We can get two ~4-5 WAR players for a lot cheaper

Trout was ahead of Miguel Cabrera in both Win Probability Added and Offensive WAR

All he does is walk and hit the occasional solo homer. He's a faster version of Chris Iannetta