From now on, I’m calling these the Mike Trout predictions, because for five years running, that’s basically what they have been.
Oh, there’s an argument every now and then about the Rookie of the Year or the Manager of the Year. The Cy Young Award winners aren’t easy to figure in either league this year.
But let’s face it. Nothing gets an awards discussion going like the Trout question. For five straight years, he has arguably been the best player in the game. For five straight years, he has led the American League in WAR, whether you prefer the Baseball-Reference.com version or the FanGraphs version.
For three of those years, someone else was the AL Most Valuable Player, as voted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Thursday, we’ll find out if it becomes four out of five.
This isn’t a repeat of Trout vs. Cabrera, because no one won the Triple Crown, as Miguel Cabrera did in 2012. There wasn’t an obvious anti-Trout this year. But because Trout’s Los Angeles Angels were 10 games out of first place by June 7 and only fell further behind, there were legitimate reasons for many not to vote for him.
Do I think he’ll win? I’ll get to that, but first let’s go through the other awards to be handed out this week.