Who Said Mike Trout's Not Perfect?

A special "thank you" goes out to Sam Miller for mentioning, on Effectively Wild, that he sometimes goes to BrooksBaseball.net for a quick snapshot of a player. Sam is right. It's great. It succinctly tells you a lot about a pitcher's repertoire or a batter's approach at the plate.

A typical write-up for a batter will say something like this, from the Hitter-At-A-Glance for David DeJesus: "Against All Fastballs (1,194 seen), he had a league average eye (0.94 d'; 59% swing rate at pitches in the zone vs. 24% swing rate at pitches out of the zone) and a very patient approach at the plate (0.25 c) with a below average likelihood to swing and miss (10% whiff/swing)."

Source: Japanese Wikipedia

It can be surprising to learn that Mike Trout's Hitter-At-A-Glance on Brooks Baseball lacks descriptive ratings such as "exceptional" and "outstanding". Beyond that, it's bewildering to learn that his some of his grades are worse than league average. To the point, Mike Trout's batting eye is described as "league average" versus fastballs, "very poor" on breaking pitches, and "poor" against offspeed stuff.

How surprising and counterintuitive does it sound that Mike Trout doesn't have a good eye? He had a .432 On Base Percentage last year and lead the league with 110 walks. Those are basic stats that aren't telling us the whole story. For more advanced metrics, courtesy of Fangraphs, Mike Trout has positive run values against every pitch offering, aside from exceptionally rare knuckle ball and eephus pitch outliers. Wild.

Context is critical. It helps maintain perspective. Mike Trout is incredible, awesome. The best, he can do it all. He's fast. He has power. He reaches base. Mike Trout's #1 ZiPS Comp is Mickey Mantle, and somehow that seems to elevate the Mantle brand, in my opinion. Mike Trout is the best player of at least two generations, and according to Brooks Baseball, he's doing it with a batting eye that is league average at best. Amazing.

Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Everyone's perspective is different. Hopefully, everyone takes something different away from The Mike Trout Experience. Trout is just so good. People who like baseball should be thrilled for the chance to see Mike Trout when the Angels visit their town. Throwing ear muffs on "perspective" for a cross-sport comp, Mike Trout is better than Kobe Bryant.

Okay, earmuffs off. Keeping historical context open for Mike Trout comparisons, he's on the precipice of blowing past everyone in history, if he has another 10 Win season. That is unrealistic. Even Ted Williams, who is the most aggressive comparison was 7 rWAR behind Trout after each of their Age 21 seasons. Trout debuted at Age 19, but it was just 40 games. It'll be better to imagine those games in Triple-A and just compare Ted Williams first two seasons (Age 20-21) with Mike Trout's two first full seasons (Age 20-21)...

Ted Williams (Age 20-21)
1,336 Plate Appearances, 161 OPS+, 13.0 rWAR, 13.8 fWAR

Mike Trout (Age 20-21)
1,355 Plate Appearances, 174 OPS+, 20.1 rWAR, 20.4 rWAR

Mike Trout is entering his third full season this year. After three full seasons, Ted Williams had 24 Wins Above Replacement. If Trout stays healthy, he should pass 24 WAR by June. Is Trout going to peak for a few years with 15 WAR seasons?

The following chart is the most rWAR by batters in the first 3 seasons of their careers...

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To	Age
1	Ted Williams	23.6	1939	1941	20-22
2	Mike Trout	20.8	2011	2013	19-21
3	Albert Pujols	20.7	2001	2003	21-23
4	Evan Longoria	20.0	2008	2010	22-24
5	Paul Waner	19.0	1926	1928	23-25
6	Eddie Mathews	18.4	1952	1954	20-22
7	Snuffy Stirnweiss	18.3	1943	1945	24-26
8	Johnny Mize	18.2	1936	1938	23-25
9	Joe DiMaggio	18.2	1936	1938	21-23
10	Jackie Robinson	18.1	1947	1949	28-30

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/4/2014.

How about that Evan Longoria?

Here's a list of highest rWAR for anyone thru their Age-21 season...

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To	Age
1	Mike Trout	20.8	2011	2013	19-21
2	Mel Ott	17.9	1926	1930	17-21
3	Ty Cobb	15.7	1905	1908	18-21
4	Al Kaline	15.5	1953	1956	18-21
5	Ken Griffey	15.5	1989	1991	19-21
6	Alex Rodriguez	14.3	1994	1997	18-21
7	Rogers Hornsby	14.3	1915	1917	19-21
8	Jimmie Foxx	13.8	1925	1929	17-21
9	Frank Robinson	13.4	1956	1957	20-21
10	Mickey Mantle	13.1	1951	1953	19-21

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/4/2014.

Ted Williams would be 11th, with 13.0 rWAR.

Source: Harry Warnecke/New York Daily News