By Manny Randhawa / for Sports on Earth
Mike Trout is the best player in baseball. That’s not news, particularly after Trout was named American League Most Valuable Player for the second time in his five-year career last Thursday.
But for all the comparisons to some of the greatest players in baseball history, and all the projections for what Trout might achieve by the end of his career, the 25-year-old’s dominance as the game’s brightest star is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
No one in the past 85 years — not Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols — has had a five-year run like Trout’s since 2012. And no one in baseball history has ever enjoyed sustained elite status from his first full Major League season, as Trout has.
Manny Randhawa 