As Aaron Gleeman notes at HardballTalk, Mike Trout reached 10 WAR on the season yesterday, marking the first time that has happened since Barry Bonds hung ’em up.
Here is the complete list of players who have reached 10 bbWAR in a single season:
Babe Ruth
Rogers Hornsby
Carl Yastrzemski
Barry Bonds
Lou Gehrig
Cal Ripken
Honus Wagner
Ty Cobb
Mickey Mantle
Willie Mays
Joe Morgan
Stan Musial
Ted Williams
Robin Yount
Lou Boudreau
Jimmie Foxx
Eddie Collins
Alex Rodriguez
Sammy Sosa
Mike Trout
Several of them did it multiple times, but that’s the entire list of guys who have done it once. If you’re playing at home, every one of them but Bonds, Sosa and A-Rod is in the Hall of Fame, and if Bonds and A-Rod don’t get into the Hall of Fame then we need some new barometer for historic greatness in baseball.
Before Trout, the youngest player to reach 10 WAR in a single season was Ted Williams, who did it at 22 in 1941, then again at 23 in 1942, then missed three seasons while serving in the Air Force during World War II only to return in 1946 and do it again. Obviously every single part of that is remarkable.
Mike Trout is 20. Mike Trout is 20. Mike Trout is 20. Mike Trout is 20. Mike Trout is 20. Can’t come up with a way to make that sentence look unimpressive.