LAT: On Baseball: There's no calling the MVP race at this point

[Taylor]

Trout doesn't deserve to be a national name until he is able to resurrect a last-place team all by himself.

[Troll Daddy]

The truth is that Trout is probably the biggest name in baseball nationally. 

There's not a kid on this planet who doesn't know or want to be Mike Trout.

[Ohtaniland]

41 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

The truth is that Trout is probably the biggest name in baseball nationally. 

There's not a kid on this planet who doesn't know or want to me Mike Trout.

Yes he is but not because of the Angels marketing. Mike Trout advertises himself and all kids want Trout on their team.

[Stradling]

If Rainman majored in Troll.  Excellent driver.

[Tank]

4 hours ago, CALZONE said:

Yes he would be marketed better by the Dodgers 

i'd love to hear how the dodgers would do a better job of marketing trout than the angels do.

[arch stanton]

No one on the planet has ever been marketed more than Jeter and it netted him exactly 0 MVPs.

[Angel Oracle]

Dang, I'm hungry for fish sticks again.

[Taylor]

13 hours ago, Tank said:

i'd love to hear how the dodgers would do a better job of marketing trout than the angels do.

Because of Arte and the name change, or something like that.

[Tank]

14 hours ago, arch stanton said:

No one on the planet has ever been marketed more than Jeter and it netted him exactly 0 MVPs.

hey, keep your common sense to yourself, bub.

[kevinb]

On 9/26/2016 at 0:19 AM, arch stanton said:

No one on the planet has ever been marketed more than Jeter and it netted him exactly 0 MVPs.

He was never he best player in the league. He wasn't even the best player on his team.  

[arch stanton]

29 minutes ago, Kevinb said:

He was never he best player in the league. He wasn't even the best player on his team.  

Both statements are debatable but not really the point. Someone complained about Trout not being properly marketed and it hurting his MVP chances. Jeter was ultrahyped and writers swooned over his intangibles and leadership, the immeasurable qualities of which he was the posterboy in American sports. He was "the Captain". But he never won an MVP so how important is marketing in the discussion?

[kevinb]

Just now, arch stanton said:

Both statements are debatable but not really the point. Someone complained about Trout not being properly marketed and it hurting his MVP chances. Jeter was ultrahyped and writers swooned over his intangibles and leadership, the immeasurable qualities of which he was the posterboy in American sports. He was "the Captain". But he never won an MVP so how important is marketing in the discussion?

Marketing alone doesn't win you anything. Similar to the real world. It doesn't help Trouts chances of winning the MVP playing in Anaheim being on a last place team and having very little marketing behind him. I don't know if you watch college football but think about the Heisman Trophy and all the marketing that goes into the players who win that award over someone else. If Trout were say on a more popular team or on a division winner his chances would almost be a lock. Hell even if Trout was on a last place team but it were say the Yankees Dodgers or Boston he would probably have a better chance than being on the Angels. Marketing whether we like to admit it or not makes a big difference. But who knows. 

[kevinb]

Also Jeter was the captain but he was never the best player. Clemens Petite Rivera Giambi A Rod Jorge Texiera and even Cano were all better than he was at their prime. 

[beatlesrule]

I just wanted to post that Ken Griffey Jr is my favorite player of all time.

[arch stanton]

1 hour ago, Kevinb said:

Marketing alone doesn't win you anything. Similar to the real world. It doesn't help Trouts chances of winning the MVP playing in Anaheim being on a last place team and having very little marketing behind him. I don't know if you watch college football but think about the Heisman Trophy and all the marketing that goes into the players who win that award over someone else. If Trout were say on a more popular team or on a division winner his chances would almost be a lock. Hell even if Trout was on a last place team but it were say the Yankees Dodgers or Boston he would probably have a better chance than being on the Angels. Marketing whether we like to admit it or not makes a big difference. But who knows. 

I don't know why I'm responding to you, Mr. LJ, but I'll throw you one more. The entire point I was making was that marketing doesn't win the award. Now you can go find someone else to engage in an argument you just yanked out of your ass.

[AngelsFaninGA]

Ortiz will win it as a send-off gift, which is an absolute disgrace because he's a DH and an active steroid user. 

Edit: and an asshole

[tdawg87]

There's absolutely no way Ortiz wins the MVP. If he did, the award would become completely worthless. 

[AngelsFaninGA]

Several reasons why he wins it:

He's toward the top in all of three triple crown categories.

He's had a great September

He plays for the Red Sox

The Red Sox are a contender

It's his final season, so there's sentimental value. You just know the media is dying to send off Ortiz with an MVP award.

[Blarg]

On 9/25/2016 at 1:40 PM, Kevinb said:

The problem is Trout has zero marketing behind him. If he was in a bigger market and the team was good he would be on every tv show known to man. Him being in a smaller market in Anaheim and his team being awful hurts his brand, and in turn hurts his chances at an MVP. 

Los Angeles is the second largest media market and the Angels are included in that. He isn't in the over hyped East Coast market and doesn't try and bring attention to himself. If he did asshat things like Harper he would garner more attention. Pretty happy Trout is Trout and I'm pretty sure he is as well. 

[Blarg]

On 9/25/2016 at 5:58 PM, VariousCrap said:

 

Having no marketing behind him is again a failure of the Angels and Arte.

It's the failure,  if you want to call it that,  of Mike Trout.   He chooses how his image is marketed on a national scale.

His image could be on the front of every shoe store with his brand or on TV selling drinks, cars, clothing, etc. That is him and his agent choosing not to participate because at this point every advertising agency would love to sign him. 

The Angels have very little impact on promoting Trout beyond their own market borders. In fact MLB holds most of those cards and if you see any promos for the Angels for a national televised game it revolves around Mike Trout. 

You guys are just making shit up in your head. 

[VariousCrap]

In all fairness to myself @Blarg, I later posted that perhaps not being marketed like crazy was Trout's choice and he didn't care about that stuff.

[Dollar Bill]

Here's a story from last year in which Kershaw and his agent, Trout's agent, Boras and MLB discuss why baseball players are not marketed like NBA players.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/la-sp-kershaw-trout-mlb-face-20150405-story.html

On Trout:

Craig Landis, the agent for Trout, said his client would rather spend the off-season hunting, fishing, golfing and spending time with his family in New Jersey than getting on a plane to meet with advertisers. During the baseball season — unlike the NBA season — there are precious few days without a game, or a flight to a game.

"We're very conscious of him getting his rest," Landis said. "All these things come from high performance on the field. If you get distracted by marketing and endorsements to where it affects your performance, they all go away anyway."

From the agents:

"The NBA is good at marketing five people," said baseball agent Scott Boras, who does not represent Trout, Kershaw or Posey. "That's all they ever market. When you're talking about the elite of our game, we don't even get that."

Casey Close, the agent for Jeter and Kershaw, identified shoe contracts as "the No. 1 reason" why major league stars do not command the marketing power of NBA stars. The Nike Lunar Vapor Trout cleats look cool, but the biggest bucks go to the players who lend their names to everyday footwear.

"A young kid can wear a LeBron James shoe down the hallway," Close said. "The spikes of Clayton Kershaw or Mike Trout or Derek Jeter are not in the same ballpark, so to speak."

 

[Dick B Back]

On September 24, 2016 at 3:40 PM, Jeff Fletcher said:

I bet Posey doesn't know Mookie Betts numbers either. Or Josh Donaldson's. Or Manny Machado's. 

Guys focus on the teams they are playing. Your league and especially your division. 

I'm good with that cause I don't know what Posey's numbers are either.

[Angel Oracle]

Four times on base yesterday and HR #29, as Trout continues his AL MVP push.

30 HRs, 100 rbis looks very possible, but he needs 3 SBs and 1 HR in the remaining 5 games for the 2nd time 30-30 club membership.

[Mad5577]

the salary of star MLB players until this season has been much more than star NBA players because of the salary cap

you can argue that the deals by Kershaw and trout looks like steals at this point. Trout would command 50 mil per year if he hits the market this off season