Los Angeles Angels: Not Even Mike Trout Can Save You

Mike Trout is the best player in baseball, but even he cannot save the Los Angeles Angels.

Mike Trout has been one of the best players in Major League Baseball since 2012. Along with Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, he has been part of a group of young talent in the current game that could go down in baseball history.

Trout made his Major League debut in 2011 at age 19, which has forever linked him to another phenom who made his debut in 2012 at age 19. In 2012 they were both rookie eligible and both won the Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues. That same season, Trout finished second in MVP voting. Since 2012, he hasn’t finished lower than 2nd in the vote, winning one in 2014.

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Perhaps you’ve been living under a rock and don’t realize just how much Trout has dominated. He has never had one ridiculous season hitting like Bryce Harper did last year, but he has consistently been the best player in the American League. For that reason, it is safe to argue that Trout is the best player in Major League Baseball. Harper and Machado have great cases against him, but Trout has done something truly incredible over the past four seasons.

Trout has never posted a wRC+ lower than 150 during his entire career. In his first two seasons he had a 10.3 and 10.5 fWAR respectively. For comparison’s sake, Bryce Harper’s fWAR in 2015 was 9.5 (part of the contribution to Trout’s high mark is defense). An ISO (isolated power hitting metric) over .200 is usually considered excellent; Trout has never had an ISO under .200.

The eye test and the numbers back up Trout’s dominance over the past four and a half years. The argument could be made for him deserving another one or two of the MVP awards during his career that finished as the runner-up. He has been the best player in Major League Baseball from 2012-2016.

Despite Trout being so dominant in the past four and a half years, the Angels have not taken advantage of having a player, who by the end of his career will be considered one of the greatest of all time, for almost half a decade. During Trout’s career, the Angels have only reached the playoffs once, in 2014 when they were quickly swept by the Royals.

The Angels have never been great with Trout, but things have gone from bad to worse in 2016. After losing two of their best starters to injury, the rotation is bleeding. Jered Weaver and his 82 mph fastball is essentially the ace of the staff. Hector Santiago has been good in flashes, but has really struggled at other times. The pitcher in the rotation with the best ERA is Matt Shoemaker, posting a not very good ERA of 4.50. Tim Lincecum joined the staff yesterday, and pitched a really good game for the Angels. He gave up just 1 run in 6 innings pitched, which is one of the better Angels starts in awhile. For Lincecum the pressure is off, because if he can post a 5.00 ERA, he’s right around average for the rest of the rotation.

Essentially, the pitching staff is bad for the Angels. Relying on the offense to score 5 runs or more a game just to win isn’t a great path to victory. Even when you have Mike Trout, that’s a tall order to ask for. The Angels are 25-12 in games where they score 4 or more runs. In games where they score less than four runs, they are 4-26.

The pitching isn’t picking them up any wins along the way. In order to have a successful and winning team, the offense and pitching need to work together certainly. But at times the pitching has to pick up the offense and vice versa. The pitching simply isn’t stealing those close, low-scoring games.

Trout is one of the best players in Major League Baseaball, but he can only help in so many ways. This year he has continued his run of dominance since entering the league, hitting .300/.409/.527 with 13 home runs, 156 wRC+, .226 ISO, and he has already piled up 3.6 fWAR less than halfway into the season. He will be in the MVP talks once again this season, but regardless of how well he plays he will not be able to save his team from the depths of the western division.

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It’s unfortunate that we may never see Trout raise a World Series Trophy or win a World Series MVP. One of the best things about watching great players is seeing what they can accomplish on a great team. However, we will see him receive plenty of All-Star MVP trophies, MVP trophies, Silver Slugger awards, and maybe even a few gold gloves. Not even he can save the Angels from how horrible they have been, but we can still enjoy watching the greatness that is Mike Trout.