Trout carries USA.


Every season, the talking head experts like to make themselves look smart by proclaiming who baseball’s best hitter is.

For the longest time, they said Mike Trout. He won the American League Rookie of the Year in 2012, finished second in MLB voting his first two seasons, has won the MVP award three times, finished second two more. Last year, in spite of losing forty games due to injury, Trout still hit 40 home runs and drive in 80.

Then, the experts started trying to outsmart themselves and say silly things like, the best player in baseball is Aaron Judge, or Mookie Betts, or Juan Soto, or Ronald Acuña, or Shohei Ohtani, or whoever the flavor of the month is.

It’s Trout.

Ohtani is in a class by himself since he also pitches. But the best player in baseball, since he came up, is and has been Mike Trout. Last night, Trout put Team USA on his back and carried them to the next round of the World Baseball Classic. He showed why he is the best.

Trout went 3-for-4 with a triple, driving in all three Team USA runs in their 3-2 win over Colombia. Team USA moves on to the next round, playing Venezuela on Saturday.

For Mike Trout fans, the World Baseball Classic is the only exposure he’s going to get to any big stage.Too bad for Trout that he plays for the Angels, owned by Arte Moreno, a guy who cannot figure out how to build a playoff contending team with two of the best players in major league history.

As long as Moreno owns the Angels, the Rangers know they always have a team more snake bitten than they are in their division.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Texas @ LA Dodgers, 8:05