[the 'stache]

Well, since this is a baseball card forum...



Trout's an amazing talent, but I hate it when people say "he's the next Mickey Mantle", or something like that. No, he's the first Mike Trout. Let him be who he is. From all accounts, he's a generally nice, humble young man. If he's not already, he's going to probably be the face of baseball for a while. Major League Baseball has been dreaming about having somebody like Trout come along for a long time.

Yes, his stolen bases are down. But I think he's being asked to run less. When he does run, he's still incredibly successful. He's stolen 12 bases in 14 tries. That's an 86% clip. The strikeouts are a concern, yes. But let's remember he's only just now turned 23 years old. That he's striking out 158 times per 162 games is definitely something he's going to have to cut down on. But while he's been striking out 158 times, he's still hitting .307 for his career with a .943 OPS. He's got 543 hits, 347 runs scored, 222 extra base hits including 91 home runs. And with all those strikeouts, he's leading the American League with 278 bases. After his home run last night (#30), he's 4 off the lead in the American League, and his 94 RBIs are 2 off the league lead. His average is down at .291, but if he can turn just a few of those strikeouts into hits, he's back at his career average.

If Trout stays healthy, he's going to put up some ridiculous numbers. I'd like to see him run a little more, but I think that's a product of who's hitting directly behind him-Albert Pujols. In his rookie year, Trout was leading off more. Now he's batting second. I'm certainly not going to tell the Angels what to do, because they've got the best record in baseball. What they're doing is working.

We're all lucky to see this incredible talent.