Hitting the pause button during baseball's playoffs allows a perfect chance to take a look back at the 2019 season -- and also ahead to the deluge of award announcements that will start within days of the conclusion of the World Series.
And as always seems to have been the case in recent years, we need a disclaimer -- especially when it comes to the American League's MVP award -- that best does not always translate to most valuable. It's kind of known as the Mike Trout rule, or at least it should be.
If the Angels' gifted center fielder isn't the best player in the game, he is unquestionably among the top three or four. As such, his track record in MVP voting is unmatched in baseball history. He has finished first (2014 and 2016) or second (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018) in six of the previous seven years -- and somehow dropped all the way to fourth in 2017.
