Jim Cowsert US Presswire
The L.A. Times reported that Mike Trout came to Spring Training at a whopping 240 pounds. That’s 30 pounds over his playing weight during his historic rookie season.
Trout is considered by many to be the second coming of Mickey Mantle. In 2012, Trout showed the speed and power that a young Mantle did, before knee injuries and drinking knocked Mantle down to a mere mortal. Of course, as a mere mortal, Mantle still put up god-like statistics that all fantasy baseball owners would salivate over today.
It surprised me that considering how much Trout was compared to Mantle last season, that Trout stands at 6’1, where Mantle was only 5’11. At 210 pounds, Trout weighs only 10 pounds more than Mantle, who averaged around 200 pounds throughout his career.
The question on all fantasy baseball owners mind should be “is a bigger Trout necessarily better?” To determine the answer, we need to use some pretty advanced metrics that only the biggest baseball geeks would use. I’m not talking about WAR or BABIP, but rather WMD.
WMD will help us determine if bigger necessarily is better, as it stands for Which McCarthy Do You Choose. On the one hand, you have Melissa McCarthy, an unbelievably talented comedic actress who could be the second coming of Lucille Ball. Then there is her cousin, Jenny McCarthy, who can’t act, but looks pretty damn good doing it.
Sure, we would all love to be with Jenny McCarthy for what she looks like on the outside, but I’ve always been told it’s what’s on the inside that really matters. With Melissa, you know she will keep you entertained and laughing over the years. Basically, you can’t go wrong either way.
So how does WMD translate to Trout? While a bigger Trout will slow down on the bases, expect a surge in his power numbers, and should Trout shed the weight, expect him to be a terror on the base paths but less homers.
Should you get the Melissa version of Trout, expect 116 runs, 36 homers, 101 RBI, 24 stolen bases. Should you get the Jenny version of Trout, expect 130 runs, 22 homers, 82 RBI, and 56 stolen bases.
Just like with the McCarthy cousins, with Trout you can’t go wrong either way.
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