The Mariners Are Better Than Mike Trout (So Far)

Hello and welcome to the new Lookout Landing and the new SB Nation blog network. In retrospect I could have done more to prepare you for this transition, but it's more satisfying for me this way when people get almost completely taken by surprise. Most of the things that you think you hate, you'll like or tolerate within days, and some of the rest will be addressed by the developers. There will be things you don't like that won't change, but what all of us have in common here is that we're Seattle Mariners fans. We've all long put up with something swimming in unfortunate attributes. If you can still be a fan of the Seattle Mariners, you can put up with a different-looking Internet blog that's still delivering the same content as always.

And now for some of that content! If there's a hot debate in baseball right now, it's over who deserves to win the American League Most Valuable Player award between Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera. On Trout's side of the argument is almost every last shred of worthwhile statistical evidence. On Cabrera's side of the argument are fellow baseball players and traditional sportswriters who spend a lot of time talking to baseball players, because if there's one group of people that's awesome at evaluating baseball players, it's baseball players. Trout's the better player, and he's been the more valuable player, especially if you take salary into account, but Cabrera has MVP momentum and this looks like it's going to be a close contest.

Personally I don't really care; the guy who deserves to win is an Angel and I won't shed any tears if an Angels player gets shafted. It's just an award anyway, and there's no Mariner in the running. Holy hell is there ever no Mariner in the running. If Trout wins, great, that's how it ought to be. If Cabrera wins, great, there's material to write about, and now Angels fans are even more bitter than they usually are. This is kind of win-win.

Here's one of the things about Mike Trout's 2012 MVP campaign, though -- his performance against the Seattle Mariners hasn't done him or his team any favors.

It never means much to look at a player's statistics against another individual team, because the sample sizes tend to be limited and you get a better idea of things by looking at the overall numbers. There's no reason to believe that Mike Trout will continue to struggle against the Seattle Mariners going forward. To this point, though, Mike Trout has struggled against the Seattle Mariners, and that can never be taken away from us. All of that jealousy over Trout we try to keep within ourselves makes this just a little bit delicious. Say a guy you hate gets a real bitchin car. Say someone keys that car while it's parked in the driveway overnight. The key damage can be repaired but you still get to chuckle a petty chuckle over the guy's misfortune. This is kind of like that and not at all like that.

Trout this year has batted against 18 different teams, and against 13 of those teams he's posted an OPS north of .900. Against two teams he's posted an OPS in the .800s, and against the A's he's posted an OPS of .793. Against the Mariners, Trout has batted 14-for-53 with a .645 OPS. He's been worse only against the Diamondbacks, and he's played just three games against the Diamondbacks. Trout's started 13 games against the Mariners, and they've held him almost completely in check. They've even thrown him out stealing twice, making the Mariners the only team to throw Mike Trout out stealing this year multiple times. He's only been caught four times.

Mike Trout is a phenomenally good baseball player, a baseball player worth being jealous over, and he's going to absolutely terrorize the living shit out of the Mariners for many years to come, possibly beginning tonight. He hasn't terrorized the shit out of them yet -- not in 2011, either -- and so to celebrate that fact here are some .gifs of Mike Trout swinging and missing against Blake Beavan, Hector Noesi, and Lucas Luetge. We will always have these three Blake Beavan .gifs. We might only ever have these three Blake Beavan .gifs.

And now for Stephen Pryor because I had forgotten about this.

While I was preparing these .gifs, I was reminded of the time this past summer the PA in the Angels' press booth congratulated the Seattle SuperSonics on making it to the NBA championship. Pardon me for this but fuck the Angels and fuck Mike Trout. You swung and missed three times against Blake Beavan you stupid son of a bitch.