ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Give Mike Trout credit for one more quality that isn't in the scouting report.
Honesty.
Asked after the final game of the Angels season if he was thinking about the home run he needed to get to the aesthetically pleasing round number of 30, he confessed.
"I was definitely thinking about it the whole game," he said with a smile after the Angels' 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Trout singled and walked twice in four trips to the plate, before being removed, to a standing ovation, for a pinch-runner in the sixth.
Besides coming up short of 30 homers, Trout checked every other box on his list in a fifth straight MVP-caliber season.
Whether it's an actual MVP season remains to be seen, but more on that later.
When the virtual ink had dried on Trout's 2016 season, he had rounded off his stolen base total, with No. 30, and collected his 100th RBI.
"I knew about 'em for sure," Trout said, admittedly conscious that he was one short in each category before his final game. "It's always cool to get 30 stolen bases and 100 RBIs."
Beyond that, Trout finished with a .315 average, a major-league best .441 on-base percentage and a .550 slugging percentage. He led the league with 116 walks _ an Angels record _ and 123 runs.
Trout and Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz were the only two players in the league to hit at least .300, with an on-base percentage of at least .400 and a slugging percentage of at least .500.
His .991 OPS was the best of his career and second in the league this season.
"This guy is like the Energizer Bunny," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "He just keeps going and doesn't give in to anything."
In most ways, Trout's fifth full season in the majors was the same as the first four, but he did show improvement in several key areas.
His average and on-base percentage have now improved two consecutive seasons from 2014, when he did win the MVP, incidentally. His average went from .287 to .299 to .315 and his on-base percentage improved from .377 to .402 to .441.
He also cut down his strikeouts for a second straight year, as he vowed to do after whiffing a league-high 184 times in 2014. He struck out 158 times last year and 137 this year.
Another of Trout's areas of improvement was being more aggressive on the first pitch. He swung at 17.2 percent of first pitches this season, compared to 10.2 last season. He hit .613 with a 1.650 OPS _ in the 34 plate appearances when he put the first pitch into play.
Also, Trout reached the 30-steal plateau after seeing his numbers decline each season since he stole 49 as a rookie. The numbers went down for a variety of reasons, from his spot in the lineup to pitchers doing a better job holding him to his own reluctance to push the envelope.
The question now is whether all of that is good enough to get him his second MVP award.
The votes, cast by 30 baseball writers _ two representing each American League city _ are due before the first playoff game.
The case against Trout amounts to a case against the Angels. Many voters have shown that they interpret "valuable" to mean being on a contending team, which the Angels obviously were not.
To Scioscia, who admitted team performance should be a part of the equation, the Angels' failures weren't enough to cost Trout the award.
"This guy is the MVP," Scioscia said. "I don't think there's any question."
Trout is used to being in the debate, but not the winner. He's finished second in three of the past four years, not coincidentally the three years the Angels missed the playoffs.
No doubt aware that he could be headed for a similar fate when the award is announced in November, he shrugged.
"I tell myself to be the best player in the league every year," he said. "That's my goal... I can't think about (the award). Just go in the offseason and see what happens."
