You know how Mike Trout gave basically every baseball fan in America a show this summer? A nonstop thrill ride of skills and excitement, literally hours of fun and entertainment when he put his big box hardware store full of tools on display on a nightly basis? You’d think he earned himself some good will. You’d be wrong.
You see, Mike Trout has effectively ruined baseball. Not only does his every act in the future now invite comparison to his magical 2012 season, Mike Trout’s unparalleled excellence tipped the scales on prospect watching among fans and all non-industry types.
For now, every single team not only thinks their prospects are going to be All Stars and Buster Posey‘s — winning World Series titles falling out of bed and wooing entire regions with their winning smiles — the top prospect in the farm system of each and every Major League franchise is now the Next Mike Trout. They, too, will produce more WAR in a single season than most players muster across their pedestrian careers.
When “word” hit that the Kansas City Royals were mulling a trade for Tampa Bay Rays pitcher James Shields, rather than jumping out of their skins with joy, many Royals fans were distraught. The player reported to be heading out of Kansas City in any James Shields trade hasn’t actually played a single game for the Royals – it would be their top prospect Wil Myers. The same Wil Myers mentioned in R.A. Dickey trade talks earlier this month.
Giving up Myers is a huge price to pay but the revulsion expressed by many Royals fans highlights an undeniable truth: coveting prospects and years of control has gone too far.
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