Just some more Trout stuff

There are only 10 games left in this appalling, atrocious season, a four game series at Minute Maid Park in Houston, followed by a three game series with Oakland at home, and finally a three game series against the Astros, again, at home. While the game’s are not important, or even intriguing, the one story to follow is Mike Trout. He’s 2 home runs away, after this moonshot against Texas last night, from 30 on the season, and he’s 4 stolen bases away from 30 on the season. If Trout accomplishes this, he’ll be the first American League player, since himself in 2012 (Braun also accomplished the feat that year), to achieve that beautiful club.

While 30/30 is an amazing thing, I looked up where Trout will end up on the All-Time list if he can hit two more dingers to finish the season. He passed Tony Conigliaro and Angels Assistant Hitting Coach, Paul Sorrento, last night with his 167th home run. He’s currently tied in 422nd place all-time with a few familiar names: Casey Blake, Elston Howard, Charles Johnson, and Gus Triandos. One more ties him with Jose Hernandez at 168 and 421st of all-time. The magic two dingers, which leap frogs him to 415th, all-time? Ramon Hernandez, Lloyd Moseby, Pete O’Brien, Alex Rios, Enos Slaughter, and Ty Wigginton.

That’s great, he’s already surpassing a number of guys who had entire careers to these accomplish numbers. But it’s what he’d be able to do next year, along with his age, that really puts things into perspective.

Trout will be entering his age-25 season, he won’t be 26 until August 7th, with home run #200 within sight with a typical “Trout year”, that standard is 30 home runs. His home runs in his first full seasons: 30, 27, 36, 41, and now 28 and counting. So let’s say he gets two hangers and belts them out to finish the season at a nice, round 30 home runs. What would another season like this do for him next year?

With just 5 home runs, in this scenario, next season, he’ll pass and/or tie Tim Raines and Kevin Millar (170), Dmitri Young and Melvin Mora (171), Julio Franco and Mark Grace (173), and tie a very good baseball player in Billy Buckner, 174 career home runs, just with 5 home runs. That’s 399th all-time, where former teammate Mark Trumbo currently sits. Let’s look at 10 more home runs, that’d be 15 on the season. One more home run ties him with former Angel Hideki Matsui (175) and breathing down Andrew McCutchen’s neck (McCutchen currently sits at 175). Two more means he’s tied with another great Major League player in Ron Kittle at 176. We do the jump to #15 on the season, and he’s tied with Charlie Gehringer at 184 home runs and 378th all-time.

Now let’s say he hits the 30 home run mark again, he’s sitting at 199 career home runs. He’ll have passed players like Chris Chambliss, Alan Trammell, and Michael Young at 184. Rich Aurilia, Glenallen Hill, and Minnie Minoso at 186. Bobby Higginson, B.J. Surhoff, J.T. Snow, A.J. Pierzynski, Glenn Davis, Hal McRae, Ray Durham, Al Rosen, Jason Varitek, Russell Branyan, Josh Willingham, Michael Cuddyer, Dave Henderson (cover your eyes Angels fans), and Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin. He’d be tied with Cesar Cedeno, Jackie Jensen, and Juan Uribe at 337th all-time. If he can eek one more out, which is entirely possible, for career #200 and #31 on the season, he’ll tie Josh Hamilton, Bill Freehan, Oscar Gamble, and Don Mincher for #333 all-time.

I’ll do one more season and a quantum leap for his 2018 season (his age-26 season), let’s say he hits 30 more home runs (which is still conservative if you ask me) and ends the season at #230 for his career. We see Bill Dickey, Carl Everett, Wally Joyner, Jose Cruz, Felipe Alou, Kirby Puckett, Devon White, Phil Nevin, Roberto Alomar, Leon Wagner, Travis Hafner, Jose Guillen, Jeff Conine, Pedro Guerrero, Mike Sweeney, Benito Santiago, Bob Horner, Al Oliver, Tony Oliva, Tony Batista, Don Mattingly, Jason Bay, Mike Lowell, Bobby Doerr, Bobby Grich, Marquis Grissom, and Nomar Garciaparra eclipsed in Trout’s greatness. And he would’ve tied Rob Deer for 265th all-time with #230 home runs. And he’ll only be turning 27 that August, an age considered just entering the prime of your career.

What’s even crazier is the list of current players he’ll be catching up to. Active players on that list include Carlos Gonzalez, Johnny Peralta, Hunter Pence, Giancarlo Stanton, Ian Kinsler, Ryan Zimmerman, Justin Upton, Joey Votto, Troy Tulowitzki, Jayson Werth, Victor Martinez, and Adam Jones. Obviously, they’re still active and producing, for the most part, so it’s not like he’ll just catch up to them that easily, but it does put things into perspective when you consider the fact that a majority of those guys have been playing in the show for over a decade.

Trout’s already hit more dingers than guys have in their entire careers, and it’s coming from a guy who just barely became able to rent a car. What’s scarier is that we may not have seen him at his best, as he approaches his prime, he could hit for even more power. By the time it’s all said and done, let’s hope he’s breaking even bigger records in an Angels uniform. Heck, he’s already 6th all-time in franchise history, only seven behind Vladimir Guerrero and fifteen behind Troy Glaus. We’re seeing someone going to shatter franchise records (albeit with a limited Angels history). Mike Trout is already the greatest Angel to ever don the uniform, and he’s just getting started.