[Hype/Mike Trout]

Easily, yet arguably, the best player in the MLB today, Mike Trout looks like .323 average, 27 home runs, 44 stolen bases. The kid is unstoppable. He has essentially clinched the AL Rookie of the Year in the races for Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, Hank Aaron Award, even MVP. The only other two rookies to win MVP and ROTY in the same year are future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki and Fred Lynn. Of course there's also the fact he is three homers away from changing the game forever and becoming the first rookie to go 30/30. He's already the first 25/40 rookie. Everybody is so focused on Bryce Harper because he's 19; look, I'm happy for him but he's beyond the point of overrating. He's only batting .260, and that's great, for a 19 year old but for a MLB starter it's below average. With 18 homers and 48 RBI's, he's just a 19 year old with a lot to learn. In my opinion he shouldn't even be in the race for ROTY. Does anybody even know Todd Frazier? Or Yoenis Cespedes? Both rookies, better numbers, but because Harper is 19... nobody knows them. And Trout only has 24 more at bats in the same amount of games played. In fact, the only thing I can see wrong with Trout is strikeout frequency which isn't even all that high. Trout is my obsession. He's everything I love to see in a ball player: he loves the game, you can just see it in the way he reacts to things. Some people say he's flashy; I disagree. I think he gets excited when he knows he did something great. Then the haters who think, "Oh, once pitchers see him a second time, it'll be different.'' I got news for you, Trout has 478 at-bats in 117 games. That's quite a few times around the pitchers. I personally guarantee Mike Trout Rookie of the Year.

Shout out to the next ones - stay humble.

Injuries.
Yesterday, A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat. On impact, McCarthy immediately falls, removes his hat, and squirms in pain. When the trainers came out, to my personal surprise, he sat up.  After a 90+ MPH baseball to the side of his head, he sat up. he rubbed his head a lot, probably expecting blood. Then even more shockingly, he stood up. He walked off the field on his own power. Today, he was operated on for epidural hemorrhage. This all makes me think. Athletes... We're stubborn as hell. We want to play. To succeed, to win. You can't win off the stretcher. I know I'm stubborn. When my knee pops, I try to hide the fact that I have half the mobility. I just want to play. One of my favorite cases is Chase Utley, and Danny Way. Utley is in his mid-30's. His knees are shot. He's had some freakish hand injuries. But he's always on the field, always 110%. Never slowing down, even in pain. Hell, he finished a game with a broken hand, his glove hand. Danny way, well... The guy just skates. Jumping the Great Wall of China with torn ankle and foot ligaments, winning X-Games with a fractured ankle, and again with a sprained ankle, the guy is unstoppable. Then there's Derek Redmond, a British runner. At the '92 Games, Redmond was running in the 400 meters semi-finals. Just 26 seconds in, he pulled his hamstring. He immediately slowed up, and dropped to a knee. But he got up. Hardly running, more of a hop, with an expression of an athlete who knew his career was over, he continued the race. A few people tried to stop him, a couple tried to help, but he pushed them all away. Then his dad came out, put his sons arm around him, and Derek Redmond broke into tears. That right there - the perseverance to just finish - is something every athlete has. A drive, a motivation. I cant stand being told I can't play, just because it hurts. Tape it up, and put me in. As athletes, not playing when you're supposed to play, it's like quitting. We don't like quitting, do we? I know I don't. Pain comes with being an athlete. We understand that.

Athletes, unite!