Mavericks outfielder Mike Trout
File this one under “Least Surprising News of the Year”: Mike Trout has been unanimously selected as the 2012 DTBL Rookie of the Year. The only question is where does his season rank among the top rookie campaigns of all time? Heck, forget rookie seasons. He put together one of the best seasons of any player in league history. He has some stiff competition for the league MVP award, but he is certainly in that conversation as well.
Although Trout has been considered one of baseball’s top prospects for the last couple years, the Mavericks selection of him with the 12th pick in this year’s draft caught some by surprise. He struggled a bit in his brief MLB stop in 2011 and was not expected to play a significant role for the Angels this year due to a very crowded outfield situation. But sometimes you just have to make room for a “once in a generation” type talent. If the rest of his career plays out anything like his rookie season, Trout will be the biggest steal in the DTBL Draft since the inaugural one in 1993.
Just how good was Trout? Well, he led the league in runs scored (128) and stolen bases (48) by wide margins, despite not making it onto the Mavericks big league roster until May. Only one player in the past five years has scored more runs than that in a single season (Curtis Granderson, 2011). Oh by the way, he also hit .330 (3rd in the league) with 30 home runs. He is already combining power and speed unlike anything this league has seen before. His 48 stolen bases are the most in DTBL history for a player who also hit 30+ home runs. He was just two stolen bases shy of becoming the first 30/50 player in this league. Not bad for a guy who just turned 21 in August.
The Mavericks rebuilding plan got kicked up a notch or five thanks to the acquisition of Trout. He led the team in batting average, runs and stolen bases and was largely responsible for their jump from the third worst offense in 2011 to the second best this year. In fact, he was the main reason the team as a whole improved from eighth place to nearly pulling off a shocking upset, coming in just one point away from a league title. Trout is just one of a stable full of young, exciting Mavericks. They figure to be one of the favorites to win it all next year.
Speaking of young Mavericks, the second place finisher in the Rookie of the Year vote is another Maverick: Stephen Strasburg. Sometimes when a player wins a vote unanimously, it is due to a lack of deserving competition. But that was not the case with this year’s group of rookies. Strasburg easily could have won the award in a different year. The second overall pick in the draft won 15 games with 197 strike outs and a 3.16 ERA in just under 160 innings pitched. Of course, it was that limited innings count that created quit a controversy this fall and may have cost both the Nationals and Mavericks a championship. Strasburg received half of the second place votes and finished with 58 points. Right behind him was a rookie only in the DTBL sense of the word, 37 year old R.A. Dickey. Dickey is a strong NL Cy Young candidate and would have had a shot at that award in this league too, except he remained a free agent until the Moonshiners signed him in late May. So only 13 of his 20 wins counted in this league. But he still had extremely impressive numbers across the board. He received four second place votes and finished just a hair behind Strasburg with 52 points. The final second place vote went to Jackalope first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who finished fourth in the vote with a tally of 31 points. Finally, Choppers first baseman Mark Trumbo finished in fifth place with 14 points.
With one award to his name already, we will see later this week if Mike Trout is able to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award as well. The Trout/Cabrera debate has been brewing for quite some time now, so I’m sure many are anxiously waiting to see how that shakes out. In the mean time click here to view the full 2012 DTBL Rookie of the Year voting results. Check back tomorrow evening for the Cy Young announcement. Also, I haven’t forgotten about the 3rd and final season recap article, but it will have to wait until all of the awards have been handed out.