By Jonathan Northrop, AngelsWin.com Contributor -
I thought this was worth sharing. My favorite player of the 90s, and the player that up until a few years ago could be considered "Mr Angel" and arguably the best outfielder they've ever had, is none other than Tim Salmon (Edmonds was as good, and better as a Cardinal, but I'm talking total career as an Angel). Salmon accrued a total of 35.5 fWAR in 1672 games played - a solid career that puts him in the Hall of the Very Good.
Now here is where it gets crazy. Salmon made his major league debut on August 21, three days shy of his 24th birthday. Keep that in mind.
Let's move on to Mr. Trout. On August 7 he will turn 24 years old. On August 4, Trout will be the same age that Salmon was when he played his first major league game. Digest that.
Hold onto your seats. Trout currently has 35.0 fWAR, 0.5 fWAR less than Salmon's entire career. Yes, that's right - Trout is about a two-homer game away from equaling Salmon's career output. Unless he slumps terribly, Mike Trout should surpass Tim Salmon's career total in fWAR before the age that Salmon played his first major league game, which would be August 4. Right now, Trout's played 583 games - a bit more than a third of Salmon's career (34.9%, to be exact).
Let me put it another way, and more succinctly:
Mike Trout has already provided as much total value to his team in his 583 games of play, as Tim Salmon did for his entire career of 1672 games, and all before the age that Salmon played his first major league game.
I don't know about you, but that just blows my mind.
