Yep!
Mike Trout, the best player in baseball that nobody talks about, just inked a 12 years, 430 million dollar contract, the richest contract in sports history.
While this is awesome for Trout it stinks for baseball and baseball fans. Mike Trout is the best player in baseball but has half the recognition as lesser players like Harper, Machado, Kershaw, etc. MLB has argued that his lack of marketability is because he simply doesn’t want to cooperate with them, while he and his team say otherwise.
The main issue is that he is stuck in Los Angeles (or Anaheim- still don’t know what they’re doing with the name) on the worse of the two teams in the region. It’s a shame that the only time 90% of the country gets to watch him is when the Angels are on Sunday Night baseball- otherwise you’re staying up until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning to watch a bad baseball team with the best player in the league.
All Trout has done since he entered the league is average 307/33/90 on teams void of talent. When his career is done he will go down as the best baseball player of all-time and his entire career will be spent on the west coast playing meaningless games while the rest of the country is asleep.
This suits Trout, though. There was speculation that he would go to his hometown Phillies when his contract was up in two years but that never seemed likely due to the nature of Trouts makeup.
He has never been outspoken, always enjoyed the peace he has being somewhat anonymous, and doesn’t enjoy the spotlight. He married his high school sweetheart who he’s been dating since he was 14 and now the two of them can live the next 14 years without cameras and scrums of people surrounding them every time they leave their house.
Good for Mike Trout. he is worth every penny and will continue to finish in the top-2 of MVP voting for the next decade. I just wish it was in a market where people could appreciate his talent and watch the best baseball player ever do his thing every week.
Bowles' Blog 