We are, after all, talking about two players who still can't even drink legally.īryce Harper's story makes him more acceptable. Harper is the id, Trout the ego and their peers tried to play the super-ego, balancing the two, arduous though the task was. He hustles like Larry Flynt, hits balls a mile, parlays his different sort of athleticism – a longer, lither kind – into playing outfield like a natural despite having spent all of a season and a half there. Harper's arrogance is endearing, his long swing fixable, his over-aggression something out of which he'll grow. Your heart sees through prescription glasses. You don't love his arm, but that's OK, because if you love with your head, you see the flaws in a man and accept him for what he is. You love his speed, you love his bat, you love his power. You love how he makes the best catch of the first half look so ordinary. You love his athleticism, 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds of muscle wound with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. The level of adoration depends more on the body part with which you do your thinking: the head or the heart. Chipper Jones is right: It's easy to admire Mike Trout, and it's just as easy to swoon over Bryce Harper. Nobody else to this point has encapsulated the Harper-Trout debate in such perfect fashion. "But I have a man-crush on Bryce Harper." If he was going to waffle, he wanted to at least add some chocolate chips. Jones, however, mulled the idea for a few seconds. Of the 15 players to whom Yahoo! Sports posed the Harper-vs.-Trout question, nearly half copped out without a choice. "I can't answer it," Chipper Jones says, and he's not the only one. Biggie, a contrast of size, of strength, of style, similar only in an unmistakable brilliance. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were similar players. Mays debate that persisted throughout the 1950s and well into the '60s. "You've got American League, National League. "That question right there is the one every clubhouse argues," San Diego closer Huston Street says. It's about a new generation of baseball stars whose similarities may end at the respect they've engendered among their peers, Trout through his quiet brilliance and Harper through sheer force of persona. It's about the Washington Nationals' 19-year-old wunderkind and the Los Angeles Angels' 20-year-old MVP candidate. Perhaps the greatest testament to their instantaneous stardom is that in this All-Star game in which neither Harper nor Trout will start – because not only were they not on the All-Star ballot, they weren't even on their teams' opening-day rosters – they are the chief attraction. An answer is an answer, and it's good enough, even if it might pique the world's curiosity on what the minds inside locker rooms think about one of their own. That voting is announced Thursday.įor winning the award, Trout earned a $10,000 bonus on top of his $482,500 salary.Sometimes it evolves into a question of why as well, though brevity often suffices within the clubhouse walls. His season put him in contention for the AL MVP award along with Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera of Detroit. He began this season in the minors and made his first big league appearance this year on April 28. Trout spent some time in the majors last year but still retained his rookie status. In addition to Trout and Longoria, the only other unanimous AL winners were Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter, Tim Salmon, Sandy Alomar Jr., Mark McGwire and Carlton Fisk. Arizona pitcher Wade Miley was second with 12 first-place votes and 105 points, followed by Cincinnati slugger Todd Frazier with three firsts and 45 points. Harper got 16 of 32 first-place votes and 112 points from the NL panel. Oakland outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was second with 63, followed by Texas pitcher Yu Darvish (46), who joined Trout as the only players listed on every ballot. Trout received all 28 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, becoming the eighth unanimous AL pick and the first since Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria in 2008.ĭetroit second baseman Lou Whitaker had been the youngest AL winner in 1978, but he was 2 months, 26 days older than Trout when he took home the award. The NL Rookie of the Year was later announced, with Washington outfielder Bryce Harper the winner. 326 with 30 homers and 83 RBIs following his call-up from the minor leagues in late April. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels became the youngest AL Rookie of the Year, a unanimous winner Monday after a season that put him in contention for the MVP award, too.
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