“Happy Birthday, Dear Trouty….”

Mike Trout turns 21 years young today.

Aaron Gleeman of HardballTalk makes a point to say that Trout is “the American League’s best player”, and he’s wrong.

I fall more in like with the thinking of my dear friend M.J. Lloyd, who has reminded me via text all season long that Trout is baseball’s top player.

Look at this snippet from the HBT link, and then try and disagree with us:

He leads the league in batting average (.348), steals (36), and runs (86), ranks second in slugging percentage (.598) and OPS (1.009), and rates third in on-base percentage (.411). And course he’s also an excellent defensive center fielder, which is part of how Trout leads all of baseball in Wins Above Replacement (7.4).

What this tells us is that Mike Trout is indeed the best player in all of baseball. There’s no guarantee that it stays that way for the next five years or anything; but at this moment in time if you hit the ‘pause’ button on the world of baseball (that would be kind of cool), Trout is on the top of the pyramid.

I think the best part about it all is at age 21, he could continue to climb in feats. As I watch the highlights every night of Trout taking a home run away from an opponent, jumping around the basepaths like a gymnast and generally sliding around the infield like he’s on a waterpark slide; the guy is just damn fun to watch.

I would also be prepared for much lengthier birthday card to Trout from M.J. Lloyd over at Halo Hangout at some point, in which he asks Trout to marry him or take him to prom.