Los Angeles Angels: Appreciating Mike Trout as LeBron James

Basketball’s Mike Trout

The mechanics of basketball are obviously much different than baseball with every player able to touch the ball and no set things such as ABs, or firm defensive positioning (besides the man/zone you get assigned).  Before we start comparisons, FiveThirtyEight looked at what if MLB was played the NBA Jam way (2v2 ).

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In a world where only the top position player and pitcher from each team compete, the Los Angeles Angels become a top 5 team solely on the merit of Mike Trout (Ty Buttrey provides 2.6 WAR to Trout’s 10.5).  So in a world where Trout can be used more often, the Angels go from an afterthought to one of the best teams in baseball.

So, LeBron James has been the cream of the crop in the NBA since arrival in the league in 2003.  LeBron’s best season by Value Over Replacement Player (VORP, WAR equivalent), topped out at an insane 11.6 VORP in the 2008/09 season.  Trout meanwhile has authored two 10.5 WAR season in 2012 and 2016.

The following is a subjective and theoretical exercise that serves to show how incredible Mike Trout is.  On a rate basis, that would Trout is worth .064 WAR per game while LeBron is worth .141 per game. This is an Apples to Orange comparison since both play different sports.

What if we cloned Mike Trout in a secret lab and made two of him that the Los Angeles Angels could use?  FanSided’s Believeland Ball provides us with a simple WAR calculator so we can see what 2 Trout’s would be worth.  Using the calculator above, I doubled all of Trout’s 2012 statistics to see what the machine would spit out.  There are a few diminishing returns because there is only a finite amount of WAR available in a given season, but Trout and his clone put together an incredible season of 11.7 WAR, nearly identical to LeBron James.

Mike Trout WAR: 11.7

LeBron James VORP: 11.6

Pretty damn close.  So Mike Trout and LeBron James are within around an error of each other.  Like the NBA Jam example, the Los Angeles Angels would likely be one of the best teams in the league if Trout was free to dominate as often as he pleases as opposed to a few ABs and defensive attempts per game.

Both Mike Trout and LeBron James are elite athletes at what they do.  If Baseball were structured differently, the conversation about Mike Trout would not only be that he is the best baseball player ever, but the most dominant athlete to ever play in sports.  Regardless LeBron and Trout are both incredible athletes who’re athletic feats deserve to be appreciated on loop as seen in the below tweets.