Let's talk about Mike Trout

We're normally on the other end of these conversations. The A's could have a magic number of zero in late August, and Buster Olney would write a piece about the 5 most likely trade destinations for Stephen Vogt. Sonny Gray will throw a no hitter in late May and the first Facebook comment will be "great now Beane will trade him for a buncha no name prospects" with a few expletives thrown in for good measure. It's one of the unfortunate realities of A's fandom, and I'm not going to pretend like it's totally unwarranted.

But now we can be on the other side. The Angels have had some horrendous injury luck that I wouldn't wish on anyone, even the Angels. Albert Pujols is under contract for the next billion years at a billion dollars per year, their owner isn't exactly well liked, and they'll probably employ both Tommy Milone and Tim Lincecum by the end of the day. Things are really bad in Los Angeles of Anaheim.

With news of UCL injuries to the two best starting pitchers in the Angels organization, the internet has reacted with a firestorm of Mike Trout trade talk. Almost everyone realizes how unlikely it is the Angels move the best player in the world, one who is under team friendly contract until 2020. But it's still fun, and things down south are seriously sour to the point where Trout trade talk goes from a complete waste of time to just stupid.

Let's jump in on the fun.

Why the Angels shouldn't even consider a trade

He's Mike Trout. Of course the Angels shouldn't listen on Trout. Do you think you can recoup fair value for a Mike Trout? If your idea of fair is anywhere near normal, then no. He's the best player in the world, he's been pretty much the perfect teammate, and he's 24 freaking years old. He's not going to decline anytime soon, he might even get better. If that's possible.

Why the Angels should listen to offers

Mike Trout is fun to watch and we don't like the Angels.

On a slightly more objective note, things are bad down in Anaheim. They have a few bad contracts coming off the books this offseason, but Albert Pujols will be a money suck for another seven years, and ownership has no intenion of spending. It's not like the free agent market next year will bear much fruit anyway, the best pitcher available is Steven Strasburg and it's hard to imagine the Angels spending big on a guy with a history of injury. With a seriously barren farm system, there's no help on the horizon. The Angels really have nothing to do but sit around and wait.

There's the persistent argument of wasting Trout's prime too, one that surely isn't of importance to the Angels front office. Still, it's a bummer to see the best player in baesball wallow away on a non-competitive team. Trout's best years will probably be spent as the saving grace on a mid-70's win team, and he deserves a fate better than that.

Your thoughts?