Episode 1730: The Mike Trout 30th Birthday Draft

Summary[]

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman of Céspedes Family BBQ banter about Jake's baseball bike trip (and Jordan's accompanying car ride) from New York to Chicago. Then, in honor of Mike Trout's 30th birthday, they draft their favorite things about Trout and his incredible career.

Topics[]

Draft of favorite thinks about Mike Trout

Banter[]

Episode 1721 follow-up: Reviewing Jake's bike ride to Chicago. Jake completed the ride and he and Jordan went to 12 baseball games in 14 days. Along the way almost $30,000 was raised for Lost Boyz Inc.
Jake hints at another Cespedes Family BBQ road/bike trip that could happen next summer.

Draft Selections[]

Jordan: Mike Trout was picked 25th and after Randal Grichuk, Trout's incredible performance in spring training, Trout's speed
Jake: Mike Trout passing down the #1 jersey each year at his high school, Mike Trout's 2014 MVP season where he led the league in strikeouts, Trout's love of weather
Meg: Trout has only had one month below league average by wRC+ since his debut (August 2015, 99 wRC+), Trout's experiments with switch hitting, that Trout stayed with the Angels
Ben: Entering 2012 Trout was the 3rd ranked prospect, Trout being the best player by WAR through every age (until recently), Trout being the only player to attend the 2012 televised draft

Notes[]

Jordan refers to Randal Grichuk as "uninspiringly normal".
During his 2014 MVP season Trout led the majors in strikeouts with 184. Sammy Sosa and Mo Vaughn are the only other players in the Wild Card era to do this.
Mike Trout owns a weather balloon.
Mike Trout's career WAR is higher than that of Stephen Strasburg, Zach Wheeler, and A.J. Pollock combined.
Ben picks Mike Trout being on the SuprePretzels box. The others are in awe. Jordan: "Why didn't I have this on my board? It's a huge oversight." This triggers a lengthy speculation over Trout's sponsorship deal, such as whether he gets an infinite supply of SuperPretzels.
Jordan promises that if he and Jake can ever interview Mike Trout their first question will be about SuperPretzels.