Mike Trout is an all-world player, a three-time MVP, a nine-time All-Star and the highest-paid player in Los Angeles Angels history, but his talents don’t extend to his ability to lead a fantasy football league.
On May 27, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham and San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pederson got into an altercation prior to the game. It started out with some pleasantries exchanged over a fantasy football league a few years ago and ended with Pham slapping Pederson.
The league included a $10,000 buy-in with a few other players from around MLB, including Trout. But after controversy over some of the rules, both Pham and Pederson have spoken multiple times with their version of the story, and Trout was mentioned by Pham, with somewhat of a smile, as having a role in what happened, via The Athletic:
“Trout did a terrible job. Trout’s the worst commissioner in fantasy sports,” Pham said. “He allowed a lot of shit to go on and he could’ve solved it all. Nobody wanted to be commissioner, I didn’t want to be the fucking commissioner. I’ve got other shit to do. He didn’t want to do it; we put it on him. It was kind of our fault too, because we made him commissioner.”
Because of the randomness and the news of Pham slapping Pederson reached the public, it’s no surprise that Trout might not want to speak on the matter:
On Wednesday afternoon, Trout declined to comment on whether Pederson violated the rules of the fantasy league. Trout said he is unsure if he’ll resign as commissioner for this coming season.
“Every commissioner I know gets booed,” Trout said.
Pham had accused Pederson of cheating by stashing injured 49ers running back Jeff Wilson Jr., but Pederson believed and showed his own pictures of there being nothing in their league’s rules that made what he was doing an issue. This was an issue between Pederson and Pham, with Trout being caught in the crossfire of a silly argument:
Pham, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation, has since apologized to Trout for making public his role in the fantasy league.
Perhaps Pham’s frustrations were built from more than just the fantasy league as he was batting .200 with a 57 wRC+ in the week leading up to the point of impact when his hand struck Pederson.
While Trout may not be able to lead a fantasy league, the Angels are hoping he can lead them back to the postseason.
Trout locks himself in with all-time greats
When Luis Rengifo slapped an infield single that brought Trout home, he became the second player in Angels franchise history to score 1,000 career runs, joining Garret Anderson who sits at 1,024.
This season, Trout is playing like the perennial MVP candidate the baseball world has seen since his debut, and now joins Willie Mays & Alex Rodriguez as the third player in league history with at least 1,000 runs, 300 home runs, and 200 stolen bases by their age-30 season.
The Angels got quite the catch with Trout at the 25th pick in the 2009 MLB Draft and in his 12th season he has already joined some of the game’s all-time greats.
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