Erstad vs Trout, a dozen years apart

Once upon a time there was a young Angels outfielder who had a dynamite offensive and defensive season.

His name was Darin Erstad and the year was 2000. His WAR was a spectacular +9 (just one win behind Mike Trout‘s legendary 2012).

Year   Age  Tm   G  AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
2000    26 ANA 157 676 121 240 39  6 25 100 28  8 64 82  .355 .409 .541
2012    20 LAA 139 559 129 182 27  8 30  83 49  5 67 139 .326 .399 .564

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Their stats above are pretty comparable.  Erstad batted 29 points higher with more doubles but Trout walked more, stole more bases and supplied more home-run power.

They were each clearly the best fielders on their team and both deserved gold gloves.  Also they were both managed by Mike Scioscia (Erstad in Mike’s first big league season as skipper).

Baseball people project Trout to be an all-time great and rightly so.  Unfortunately there is always a chance that he could peak a bit too early like so many projected greats have before.  Let’s hope not.

who said Peter Bourjos couldn’t hit?

During his rookie season in 2010 Angels center fielder Peter Bourjos provided less offensive production than Reggie Willits.

From FanGraphs:

Willits – 77 wRC+

Bourjos – 66

Jeff Mathis – 32

Mike Scioscia stuck with the fleetest of foot Angel and Bourjos rebounded to become one of three MLB players with double-digit home-runs & triples plus 25 doubles.

Rk                    HR 3B 2B Age  Tm  PA
1       Peter Bourjos 12 11 26  24 LAA 552
2   Curtis Granderson 41 10 26  30 NYY 691
3     Shane Victorino 17 16 27  30 PHI 586

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Most of the jump in hitting prowess can be attributed to his getting 11 addition hits from each 100 balls he put into play this year vs. last. His BABIP was over 30% vs. RHP & LHP, at home & the road and in each half of the season. Sounds like a reliable indicator of future success.

Do Halos fans believe he will continue this performance in 2012?