Rank These Modern Righthanded Hitters

[StanMarsh51]

If we are talking about stricting hitting why are people saying Trout is at the top or close to it. He is far from the best hitter. He is outstanding at getting on base, drawing walks but and putting up big power numbers but not the best hitter.

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Aren't those part of hitting? I'd say anything done at the plate (which those are) is part of hitting.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

If we are talking about stricting hitting why are people saying Trout is at the top or close to it. He is far from the best hitter. He is outstanding at getting on base, drawing walks but and putting up big power numbers but not the best hitter.

Miggy
Thomas
Pujols
Manny

All better hitters. All better at driving in runs but I won't hold that against Trout bc he went from 7th to 2nd to now finally 3rd in the batting order the past 3 years or so.

I like to compare the player with his peers... Look how many first place Trout has, look how many top 10s he has... he has more than the others...

Look at SLG%, BA%, OBP%, HRs, or whatever you want to look at...

 

[DragonfromTO]

If we are talking about stricting hitting why are people saying Trout is at the top or close to it. He is far from the best hitter. He is outstanding at getting on base, drawing walks but and putting up big power numbers but not the best hitter.

Miggy
Thomas
Pujols
Manny

All better hitters. All better at driving in runs but I won't hold that against Trout bc he went from 7th to 2nd to now finally 3rd in the batting order the past 3 years or so.

Well, while I excluded base running I assumed that "hitting" basically meant the results of all plate appearances, including walks and whatever else.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Aren't those part of hitting? I'd say anything done at the plate (which those are) is part of hitting.

True but Trout overall still isn't better than most of these guys. He near the bottom and I've already said I don't like including him bc I don't think he's hit his true prime yet.

 

[Shanemansj13]

I like to compare the player with his peers... Look how many first place Trout has, look how many top 10s he has... he has more than the others...

Look at SLG%, BA%, OBP%, HRs, or whatever you want to look at...

So bc Trout is much better than his peers he is better than Frank, Manny, etc bc they weren't the clear best in their time? I don't agree with that but that's a different way of looking at it.

 

[navamind]

So bc Trout is much better than his peers he is better than Frank, Manny, etc bc they weren't the clear best in their time? I don't agree with that but that's a different way of looking at it.

It's too early to say whether Trout's ahead of them given he still has a lot of career left. Pujols had a career OPS+ of 172 over his first ten seasons and now it's down to 147 (which is still great). Pujols looked like he was going to go down as one of the greatest players ever, but he's just going to have to settle for being one of the greatest first baseman ever. There's always the possibility that Trout suffers a similar decline.

But right now, Trout's OPS+ is significantly better than the other players. Only Thomas has a higher OBP (and even then, it's .4191 to .4188) and only Manny had a higher SLG% (.5854 to .5811). Trout is 21st all-time in OBP and 9th in SLG%. I don't think you need to look at how he stacks up to his peers when he stacks up to almost every single hitter ever.

Trout's RBIs aren't great, but he's also spent a good chunk of his career as a leadoff hitter/#2 hitter. He's also led the AL in runs scored four times and finished in the top 10 three other times. 2017 is the lone exception, but that's because he only played 114 games (and he still scored 92 runs).

 

[StanMarsh51]

True but Trout overall still isn't better than most of these guys. He near the bottom and I've already said I don't like including him bc I don't think he's hit his true prime yet.

How is he near the bottom?

For starters, Trout's posted an OPS+ of 175 in 5 seasons. By comparison, Thomas did so 6x, Pujols did so 4x, Cabrera's done so 3x, Manny's done so 1x.

 

[Thruthefog]

1. Trout
2. Miggy
3. Thomas
4. Ramirez
5. Pujols
6. ARod

 

[StanMarsh51]

If we are talking about stricting hitting why are people saying Trout is at the top or close to it. He is far from the best hitter. He is outstanding at getting on base, drawing walks but and putting up big power numbers but not the best hitter.

Miggy
Thomas
Pujols
Manny

All better hitters. All better at driving in runs but I won't hold that against Trout bc he went from 7th to 2nd to now finally 3rd in the batting order the past 3 years or so.

Are they better at it however, or did they just have more chances?

Trout's only had 1 seasons where he had 300+ PAs with runners on with his most at 310. By comparison:
-Cabrera's had 11 seasons with 300+ PAs with runners on, with 4 of them being 340+ and 2 of them being 350+
-Pujols has had 16 seasons with 300+, with 2 of them being 360+
-Manny had 10 seasons with 300+ and 3 with 330+
-Thomas had 10 seasons with 300+, with 2 of them 360+


There's a big difference between Trout averaging 265 PAs a season with runners on and these guys routinely getting 300+ for most of their productive years. We can change this to at bats and the results would still be similar...

 

[StanMarsh51]

1. Trout
2. Miggy
3. Thomas
4. Ramirez
5. Pujols
6. ARod

There's a sense of delusion among Tiger fans ranking Miggy much higher than he is...

 

[Tapey]

not a direct comp, but food for thought.