Who Should I Draft?
Mike Trout or Whit Merrifield (2021)
Experts' Pick | ||
| Mike Trout CF - LAA  | Whit Merrifield 2B,CF,RF - KC  | |
Expert |
100% Recommended by 50 of 50 experts |
0% Recommended by 0 of 50 experts |
| Rankings | ||
| ECR | # 5 | # 28 |
| Best Rank | # 1 | # 16 |
| Worst Rank | # 10 | # 56 |
| ADP | ||
| Composite | # 5 | # 41 |
| Best Rank | # 3 | # 28 |
| Worst Rank | # 6 | # 44 |
| Projections | ||
| Runs | 111 | 90 |
| Home Runs | 43 | 16 |
| RBI | 109 | 68 |
| Stolen Bases | 11 | 25 |
| Batting Average | .291 | .285 |
| Misc | ||
| Injury Alert | - | - |
| Expert Ranks | ||
| Andy Behrens Yahoo! Sports | # 5 | # 37 |
| Scott Pianowski Yahoo! Sports | # 6 | # 26 |
| Steve Gardner USA Today | # 5 | # 24 |
| Site Projections RotoChamp | # 2 | # 17 |
| Grey Albright Razzball | # 5 | # 40 |
| Greg Smith The Fake Baseball | # 5 | # 41 |
| Jeff Boggis Fantasy Football Empire | # 6 | # 28 |
| Muntradamus Beast Dome | # 1 | # 56 |
| Dalton Del Don Yahoo! Sports | # 6 | # 33 |
| KJ Fantasy Team Advice | # 5 | # 34 |
| Luke Gloeckner Mr. Cheatsheet | # 6 | # 29 |
| Dave McKay The Fantasy Sports Brain | # 6 | # 28 |
| Andrew Gould FantasyPros | # 5 | # 23 |
| Tim McCullough Baseball Prospectus | # 5 | # 28 |
| Rudy Gamble Razzball | # 7 | # 37 |
| Wayne Bretsky BretskyBall | # 3 | # 39 |
| Jake Ciely The Athletic | # 5 | # 29 |
| Joe Bond Fantasy Six Pack | # 5 | # 28 |
| Chris Meaney FTN | # 3 | # 28 |
| Andy Singleton Expand The Boxscore | # 5 | # 29 |
| Heath Capps Fake Teams | # 4 | # 28 |
| Adam Ronis Fantasy Alarm | # 5 | # 56 |
| Mario Mergola Sporfolio | # 1 | # 42 |
| Nick Pollack Pitcher List | # 4 | # 28 |
| Nick Mariano RotoBaller | # 4 | # 29 |
| Mike Maher FantasyPros | # 5 | # 29 |
| Michael Waterloo FantasyPros | # 6 | # 28 |
| Donkey Teeth Razzball | # 10 | # 33 |
| Dan Harris FantasyPros | # 5 | # 24 |
| Pierre Camus RotoBaller | # 5 | # 26 |
| Andrew Seifter FantasyPros | # 5 | # 25 |
| Max Freeze Freeze Stats | # 5 | # 29 |
| Dennis Sosic Fantasy Six Pack | # 5 | # 30 |
| Mick Ciallela Fantrax | # 7 | # 30 |
| Michael Petropoulos BRoto Fantasy | # 5 | # 28 |
| Ariel Cohen FanGraphs | # 5 | # 29 |
| Ryan Amore Pitcher List | # 3 | # 41 |
| Todd D Clark The Fantasy Fix | # 5 | # 33 |
| Brendan Tuma FantasyPros | # 2 | # 32 |
| Jacob W. Dunne New Life Fantasy | # 2 | # 32 |
| Carmen Maiorano FantasyPros | # 8 | # 24 |
| Lucas Spence Pitcher List | # 2 | # 33 |
| Jordan Eisen Field of Vision Sports | # 3 | # 16 |
| Nate Miller FantasyPros | # 4 | # 26 |
| Brad Camara FantasyPros | # 5 | # 36 |
| Staff Rankings Roto Ranks | # 5 | # 29 |
| Corbin Young FantasyData | # 5 | # 38 |
| Chris Clegg Fantrax | # 5 | # 29 |
| Joe Pisapia FantasyPros | # 5 | # 25 |
| Nicklaus Gaut RotoBaller | # 6 | # 21 |
| Mike Trout CF - LAA | Whit Merrifield 2B,CF,RF - KC | |
| 2020 Stats | ||
| At Bats | 199 | 248 |
| Runs | 41 | 38 |
| Hits | 56 | 71 |
| Singles | 28 | 50 |
| Doubles | 9 | 12 |
| Triples | 2 | 0 |
| Home Runs | 17 | 9 |
| RBI | 46 | 31 |
| Stolen Bases | 1 | 12 |
| Caught Stealing | 1 | 3 |
| Walks | 35 | 12 |
| Strikeouts | 56 | 33 |
| Batting Average | .281 | .286 |
| On Base Pct | .390 | .328 |
| Slugging Pct | .603 | .444 |
| On-base Plus Slugging | .993 | .772 |
| Mike Trout CF - LAA | Whit Merrifield 2B,CF,RF - KC | |
| 2021 Projections | ||
| At Bats | 520 | 614 |
| Runs | 111 | 90 |
| Hits | 149 | 174 |
| Singles | 74 | 118 |
| Doubles | 27 | 35 |
| Triples | 4 | 4 |
| Home Runs | 43 | 16 |
| RBI | 109 | 68 |
| Stolen Bases | 11 | 25 |
| Caught Stealing | 3 | 8 |
| Walks | 111 | 42 |
| Strikeouts | 141 | 107 |
| Batting Average | .291 | .285 |
| On Base Pct | .418 | .332 |
| Slugging Pct | .602 | .435 |
| On-base Plus Slugging | 1.020 | .767 |
| Mike Trout CF - LAA | Whit Merrifield 2B,CF,RF - KC | |
| News | ||
| Mike Trout went 3-for-4 with a single, a double, and a solo home run en route to a 6-2 victory over the Rangers. Jack Mannis Wed, Apr 21st | Whit Merrifield went 0-for-3 with two walks and two stolen bases during Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Blue Jays. Brad Camara Sun, Apr 18th | |
| Mike Trout went 1-for-2 Friday evening, walking twice to go along with two RBI. The Angels beat the Twins 10-3. Andy Zimmerman Sat, Apr 17th | Whit Merrifield went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and two runs scored in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Angels. Brad Camara Wed, Apr 14th | |
| Angels' CF Mike Trout went 2-4 with a single, a double, and a run scored in Wednesday's 6-1 loss to the Royals. Jack Mannis Wed, Apr 14th | Whit Merrifield went 2-for-4 with an RBI single, one walk and one stolen base in Sunday's 4-3 extra-inning win over the White Sox. Brad Camara Sun, Apr 11th | |
| Angels' CF Mike Trout goes down on strikes four times as the Angels fall to the Royals 3-2 on Tuesday. Jack Mannis Tue, Apr 13th | Whit Merrifield went 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and one walk in Monday’s 3-0 win over the Indians. Brad Camara Mon, Apr 5th | |
| Angels' CF Mike Trout went 1-4 with a two-run home run, one run, one walk, and one strikeout in Monday's 10-3 win over the Royals. Jack Mannis Mon, Apr 12th | Whit Merrifield went 2-for-4 with a solo homer, four RBI and an additional run scored in Saturday’s 11-4 win over the Rangers. Brad Camara Sat, Apr 3rd | |
| Notes | ||
| For one of the first times since he took the league by storm, Trout is not the consensus top pick this year. It's hardly his fault, though it's fair to point out some of the negatives with his 2020 season. He batted a career-low .281, and posted his worst walk- and strikeout-rates since 2015. He also stole only one base. But Trout's move down the overall baseball rankings is due more to his competition for the top spot, rather than his numbers. He was still among the league leaders in quality of contact and every expected statcast metric, and was on pace to hit 50 home runs over the course of a full season. Trout is entering his age-30 season, so although we've seen him rebound from poor stolen base years before, it now seems unlikely that he'll ever get back to much past low-double digits. That keeps him out of the top spot in rotisserie rankings, but his incredibly high floor makes him a top-five overall draft pick. Dan Harris - FantasyPros | Merrifield has established an extremely strong floor, as he'll almost always be an asset in batting average, steals, and runs scored, and chip in for the remaining categories. There were some concern after his steals dropped to just 20 in 2019, but he bounced back to a 32-steal pace last year while also seeing a power spike. Merrifield is 32 years old and does not hit the ball particularly hard, but that's really irrelevant at this point. He is what he is, and with multi-position eligibility, what he is a major asset in fantasy and one of the top second basemen in fantasy. Dan Harris - FantasyPros | |
| You won't find a safer first-round investment in all of fantasy baseball. However, entering Trout's age-29 season, it's now fair to consider several others worthy of the No. 1 overall pick come draft day. The biggest argument against Trout is a lack of stolen base upside. Trout swiped just one bag during the abbreviated 2020 campaign. Still, the well-rounded power and on-base skills aren't going anywhere just yet. Brendan Tuma - FantasyPros | ||
