Want to know what irks me? Even in the minor leagues, awards are garnered by popularity.
Just because Mike Trout has received a lot of press and is considered the next coming of (insert your favorite major league player here) doesn’t mean he deserves the Minor League Player of the Year award.
Baseball America has just announced that Trout was the best player in the minors this year. Barf. You want to see what’s worthy of that honor? How about a .326/.414/.544 line with 11 home runs and 38 RBIs in 91 games in double-A. Yeah, I can think of 100s of minor league players who have put up similar if not more lines in their double-A careers. Are we serious? I thought this award was based on performance. Apparently, I’m wrong.
Editor In Chief John Manual explains he could have went with either Julio Teheran or Matt Moore, but he went with Trout.
Let’s take a deeper look.
Teheran’s triple-A numbers: 15-2 record with a 2.22 ERA. Do I need to go deeper?
Moore’s double-A numbers: 8-3 record with a 2.20 ERA while racking up 131 Ks in just over 100 innings. In triple-A, he’s been even better, posting a 4-0 record with a 1.37 ERA.
So, these are less deserving than Trout? Hmm …
Manual goes on to say that he wanted to pick a batter instead of a pitcher because apparently that would be too easy. I’ll just start with my favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, and let me see what I can find.
How about a Mauro Gomez? He sported a .304/.356/.522 line with 24 HRs and 90 RBIs at the triple-A level. This is just the Braves, I’m sure I could find a few more that are way more deserving.
Trout put up decent numbers (except for the OBP) in double-A. You can’t count anything he did in the majors because it’s called Minor League Player of the Year, not Minor/Major League Player of the Year.
If a player from the double-A level and below wins the award, he should have to put up ridiculous numbers. I’m talking a .440/.500/.650 line or something. Either that or have a separate award for each level. I’d be all in for that.
It’s obvious this article was written before the season even started and they just recently filled it in with the stats next to the players’ names. Sad, but probably true.
Come on Baseball America, you’re better than that.