Through the first two years of significant action, offensively who was the better player? Trout or Howard?
This is the problem the Angels will face. Players are not superstars forever. It's a question of when their declines begins. And as I posted a while ago, when you look at superstar players, their shelflife is usually no more than 8 years, sometimes 10. Unless you are chemically enhanced. Look at the stats of any superstar, count up their prime years, and not their decline years. Trout is in year 2, and I'd rather pay him one year short, than 2+ long.
Baseball is an unpredictable sport.