Mike Trout & Bryce Harper – In Elite Company For Best Young Stars To Ever Play The Game

I would like to take a moment to congratulate both Mike Trout and Bryce Harper on their admission to the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was very forward thinking of the baseball writers association to revamp the criteria for acceptance.  It is not surprising considering the general propensity for those in baseball to be accepting of new and interesting ways to propel the sport into the future. 

Although clearly tongue in cheek, the media has been pretty presumptive in crowning these two as the future of the sport.  Or have they…..

Taking few minutes to do a quick search on one of my favorite sites: Baseball Reference.com yielded some pretty interesting information in regards to Trout and Harper and the potential impact these two could have on baseball history. 

While presumptive at the least to proclaim legendary status for these two, it is amazing to see the current company they keep relative to previous age 19, and 20 year old seasons.  Perhaps, the hype is merely being guilty by association.

I chose to use ops+ as a general indicator of where the players stack up over the years as it is league and ballpark adjusted.  After each player’s name are a random assortment of interesting numbers accumulated in each of the respective seasons.  Only players qualified for the batting title were included.

Top 10: 19 year old seasons from 1901 to present ranked by ops+

1. Mel Ott 1928 – 139, 18hrs 77rbi, 322avg, 921ops
2. Ty Cobb 1906 – 132, 1hr, .749ops, 316avg, 23sbs
3. Sherry Magee 1904 – 122, .717ops
4. Ken Griffey 1989 – 108, 16hr, 61rbi, .748ops
5. Freddy Lindstrom 1925 – 96, .761ops
6. Robin Yount 1975 – 90, ,674ops
7. Sibby Sisti 1949 – 88, 664ops
8. Buddy Lewis 1936 – 88, ,746ops
9. Rusty Staub 1963 – 81, 617ops
10. Phil Cavarretta 1936 – 81, 682ops

1. Ty Cobb 1907 – 167, .350avg .848ops, 52sb
2. Mel Ott 1929 – 165, 42hrs, 151rbi, .328avg, 1.084
3. Al Kaline 1955 – 162, .340avg .967ops, 27hrs 102rbi
4. Mickey Mantle 1952 – 162, .924ops
5. Alex Rodriguez 1996 – 161, .358avg, 36hrs, 123rbi, 1.045ops, the cream, the clear
6. Ted Williams 1939 – 160, .327avg, 31hrs, 145rbi, 1.045ops
7. Rogers Hornsby 1916 – 150, 814ops
8. Jimmie Foxx 1928 – 148, 964ops (the original Dos Equis most interesting man)
9. Frank Robinson 1956 -143, .936ops
10. Dick Hoblitzell 1909 – 143 (not in the hall)
11. Ken Griffey Jr. 1990 – 136, 22hrs 80rbi, .847ops
14. Jason Heyward 2010 – 131
18. Willie Mays 1951 – 120
26. Robbie Alomar 1988 – 105
27. Hank Aaron 1954 – 104
29. Adrian Beltre 1999 – 102
33. Starlin Castro 2010 – 100

Mike Trout’s current ops+ – 159

Of course, there is a long way to go for this season let alone the remainder of these guys careers.  That’s a good thing considering we have one of them on our team.