Fans of this era are witnessing one of the singular greatest talents to ever play the game. Are you paying attention?

BY JEFF SULLIVAN

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At some time and place, the collective talking and writing heads of the baseball world decided that the greatest player of his generation, if not all of the generations, was underappreciated, underrated, undervalued and whatever other synonym you can think of.

Since then, it’s impossible to get through a paragraph on Mike Trout without one of those adjectives. Sure enough, we are guilty ourselves. Here’s the thing, though. Everyone who knows more than nothing about baseball doesn’t hesitate a nanosecond declaring Trout as the game’s best player. Ditto for those who play with or against him on the field.

As the calendar rolled into September, he was considered a favorite – again – to win another American League MVP Award, which would be his third. Then there are his four runner-up finishes, meaning in seven of his eight full seasons, Trout was a top-2 performer in his league. So, who exactly doesn’t appreciate him or thinks he’s underrated? How and why has this become a common theme in talking about this historically accomplished slugger?