Trout is WFBL's Top 2012 Rookie

Post date: Sep 7, 2012 3:42:17 PM

Outfielder Mike Trout honored with the WFBL's 2012 Pete Rose Award as the league's Rookie of the Year

The 2012 season opened with Mike Trout playing in new surroundings, but not the ones that he hoped he would be in at that point. Traded from Rayne to the Philadelphia Athletics organization at the Winter Meetings at the beginning of the calendar year, Trout was hoping to break camp with the big club as the Athletics were rebuilding from the ashes of a 6-16 season which was the worst in franchise history. But the A's decided to give the youngster a little more seasoning, and sent him to AAA WIldwood, where Trout opened the season at the Jersey shore with the Waves, just miles from his boyhood home.

It was about a month into the season when the call finally came. The A's were ending the first round of Divisional play with a visit to iT-wan Stadium to take on defending Owens/East Pennant-winning Boston. An improved pitching staff had allowed the team to fight it's way to a 2-2 record at that point, but the offense obviously needed a boost. GM Matt Veasey and manager Buck Showalter decided that it was time to inject some life, and called up not only Trout, but fellow mega-prospect outfielder Bryce Harper. Each took over the roles of a pair of stopgap draftees, Alex Rios in center by Trout, and Carlos Lee by Harper in left.

In that first game, Trout hit .304 with a homerun and a steal and scored 4 runs. Harper hit .300 with a .440 on-base percentage, scored 3 runs, and stole a base. The combination of the two youngsters helped spark the A's to a 10-2 rout of the defending Pennant winners, and off they went. The A's would win 7 more consecutive games, would go 11-1 in Inter-Divisional play, would finish tied for 1st place, would reach the playoffs, and just miss an Owens/East Pennant with a club record-tying 17 victories. Harper would stall out a bit as the long summer wore him down during his first full season at age 19. But the 20-year old Trout, who would turn 21 years of age during this summer, continued on at an amazing pace, almost single-handedly willing the club to win after win.

In Week #6 at Las Vegas, Trout hit .421 with a .500 on-base pctg, knocking in 5 runs, scoring 4, and stealing another base, as the club slipped past the High Rollers. In Week #7 at Houston, he hit .444 with a .516 obp, cracking 2 homers, knocking in 4 runs, scoring 7 times, and stealing 4 bases to lead the club to a tie-breaker victory over the eventual Mack/West Pennant winners. In Week #9, playing his first game in front of the home Philly fans at Liberty Bell Park, Trout hit .385 with a .407 obp, homered and stole a base, drove in 8 runs, and scored 5 times as the club edged out the eventual Kalas/Central Pennant winning Joplin Tornadoes.

On and on it would go from there. Trout would finish the 2012 WFBL regular season hitting .333 with a .396 on-base percentage. He showed emerging power with 25 homeruns, and game-changing speed with his 42 stolen bases. He knocked in 74 runs, scored another 107, and was a human highlight reel on defense in centerfield. For his statistical achievements, and for helping lead the club back to contender status in the always rough Owens/East division, Trout was honored with the Pete Rose Award in a vote by the WFBL GM's. Trout received every 1st place ballot but one (from the Vegas GM, who picked his own Wei-Yin Chen 1st and listed Trout 5th in some effort to, what, maybe steal the award with one ballot?) His near-unanimous selection as the WFBL Rookie of the Year in a season full of great freshman performances was telling.

It almost didn't end there, as Trout was also among the finalists for the WFBL Mike Schmidt Award as the league's top all-around offensive performer for 2012. He would eventually finish 3rd in that voting behind Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Braun, but it was a close 3rd, and he received 4 first-place ballots. The 2012 season was an introduction to the WFBL for Mike Trout, as well as his rookie buddy Bryce Harper, and the young team looks to what appears right now to be a very bright future indeed.