Really?

And I agree completely with slamcactus here.

Kendry Morales started his affiliated career at 22, the same age as many college draftees get their first reps in the minors. He amassed 1,311 PAs over the better part of four minor league seasons with the Angels before becoming a major leaguer.

Mike Napoli is a catcher with a career .357 wOBA.

Chone Figgins is hit .293/.363/.388 during his time with LAA. That’s a comfortably above average offensive performance from a guy who played multiple defensive positions well (and played 3B at an elite level).

Izturis is a super-utility who’s a defensive asset at 2B, 3B, AND SS, who’s put up a WRC+ of 98 and been worth 9.2 WAR in parts of six seasons. For comparison’s sake, in a similar number of games and PAs (88 more PAs, but a few less games), Billy Butler has been worth 6.4 WAR.

Aybar is a decent-hitting SS who can play the position and whose offensive value rests on his BABIP. Even in a down year he was worth 1 WAR, and in good years he’s been worth as many as 3.

Napoli and Morales may be the only two impact bats for fantasy purposes, but these position players are no slouches.

In Howie Kendrick’s age-18 season, he failed to hit a single home run in the Arizona League. Trout hit 10 between the MWL and the Cali league. Kendrick hit 10 home runs in his MWL debut, but he was two years older than Trout was last year, and he didn’t jump a level like Trout did. The first year Kendrick “showed more homerun power” was his age-21 season split between A+ and AA. Trout will play at those levels next year as a 19 year old. By age 21 he’ll likely be either in AAA or the majors. There’s no doubt in my mind that three full seasons from now, Trout will be able to hit 19 home runs between the Cal League and the Texas League. He may hit fewer home runs his age-21 season, but it’ll be because he’s in AAA or the majors.

Kendrick’s speed wasn’t anything on the level of Trout’s. He developed some good baserunning instincts, but as runners, Trout’s light years ahead.

Ditto defense. Kendrick’s a mediocre 2B and always has been. Trout’s a plus defensive CF.

Gatling already pointed out Trout’s huge advantage in batting eye.

They’re not “very similar.” They’re not even slightly similar. Both players had good hit tools. That’s pretty much it. That’s like saying Bryce Harper is “very similar” to Carlos Peguero, because both players are lefthanded, decent but not great athletes, and have mammoth raw power. The comp is silly.

Trout looks much better from a scouting perspective. Kendrick probably graded similarly as far as hitting for average goes, but Trout beats him everywhere else, including a huge difference on defense. He’s also able to put his offensive tools to work effectively without the hyper-aggressive approach that Kendrick has always possessed.