I was all ready for my mid-day nap. Yes, it is that time of year when I take a nice 1 pm naps when I get the chance. Sue me. I decided to throw on some MLB Network to fall asleep with. I hoped that the talk of baseball would spark ideas in my dreams, something that has recently happened.
Suddenly, I was stuck listening to different analysts talk about how Aaron Judge is the greatest hitter of this generation. Look, I like Aaron Judge and think he is phenomenal, but can we stop with the recency bias here and not act like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Shohei Ohtani aren’t a part of the same generation?
Just as a quick reminder, Judge and Trout are 32 years old. In layman’s terms, the same generation.
For this argument, I am simply going to focus on Trout. Here are some of their stats compared.
I was immediately met with whining from people on X about how it is unfair to compare these stats because Trout has played more games. How is that not fair? We are talking about the greatest hitter of his generation, not the greatest hitter in the past few years. You have to look at all the stats of which Trout leads in almost every category.
BUT FINE. Let’s go the deeper analytical route and look at some numbers that they use for Hall of Famers.
WAR/162
Trout- 9.2 (1st All-Time CF)
Judge- 8.4 (3rd All-Time RF)
WAR 7
Trout- 65.1 (3rd All-Time CF)
Judge-46.8 (22nd All-Time RF)
JAWS
Trout- 75.6 (5th All-Time CF)
Judge 47.2 (12th All-Time RF)
WAA
Trout- 64.0 (5th All-Time CF)
Judge 34.7 (17th All-Time)
oWAR
Trout- 86.3 (5th All-Time)
Judge- 41.8 (49th All-Time)
I could keep going, but I am going to stop there. It is important to note that they are listed in different positions. Judge in RF and Trout in CF. It is also important to remember they are both 32 years old and ARE NINE MONTHS APART MAKING THEM THE SAME GENERATION. At the same time, Judge’s name in those rankings falls next to Dwight Evans and Darryl Strawberry. Trout is constantly next to Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, and Mickey Mantle.
I like Judge a lot, but let’s cut it out.
If you feel different, go on X and argue with me here.
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