re: Albert Belle on Mike Trout HOF talk: "I played 12 yrs & my stats are better than his"

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All-Stars all over the field. Put Trout on the 90's Indians and Belle on the today's Angels what do you think their stats look like?

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Did those other guys for the Indians hit Belle's home runs for him? Dude had 8 straight years of 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs. Two of those years were with two other teams who had losing seasons (including his 2nd year with the White Sox when he hit 49 HRs with 152 RBIs). He was a great power hitter. Period. You could put him on the shittiest team ever and he'd still put up impressive stats.

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He's not wrong, but the Indians in the 90's were a championship-caliber franchise and Trout plays for quite possibly the most ineptly run team in the league

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He willingly signed long term with them that's on him. Additionally in 2014 the one year they were actually good he had his second worst season of his prime. You can take walks when games don't matter as much and your team doesn't need you to drive in runs. Which is in part why is WAR is so high


Also batted .083 in the playoffs.

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But he was such an a-hole and standoffish w/the media and that is the reason why he ain't already in Cooperstown.

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Weird how he turned out like that. He and his brother were incredibly great kids. Their dad was one of my HS football coaches, would talk to them after practice. My younger brother played on the same all star team with them once..

Steeler this is from an ESPN piece about Belle:

“People close to him said Belle's personality changed after his sophomore season when publications predicted he'd be a high selection in the following year's draft. He turned tense, often angry, they said, responding poorly to the pressure. As a junior, Belle went after a fan who shouted racial insults during a Southeastern Conference tournament game. Belle, who was batting .349 with 21 homers, was suspended for the rest of the postseason.”

There have been players in the past who had issues because they didn’t like the spotlight that is required to be in The Show and just wanted to be left alone. Dick Allen and Roger Maris come to mind. But Belle was uniquely vicious in his attitudes. Plus the ESPN article I got this from quoted someone as saying his anger fueled his performance on the field, but that’s a dangerous game to play.

Dude was a National Honor Society member and Eagle Scout in high school.

I think he's right, but Belle was such a standoffish personality of a guy that he just did himself in basically. He also could have put up even better stats if he wasn't being a dick all of the time, he was never really putting his all into the games he played in. He was putting up those kind of stats just being what I call a part-time Albert Belle as a player. If he had played the game with his all with the ability he had, his stats would be eye-popping and he'd definitely be in the all HOF then.

Shoot the messenger but this actually happened, it was reported in the media at the time before anyone knew “woke” meant anything other than getting out of bed in the morning.