Army and Navy. Hatfields and McCoys. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
The world loves a good rivalry, and baseball's American League may be the breeding ground for a new one: Miguel Cabrera, third baseman for the Detroit Tigers vs. Mike Trout, center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels.
Last year, Cabrera became the first player in the Major Leagues to win the triple crown since 1967, when Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski pulled off the feat. Cabrera lead the league with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs, and 139 RBIs, and won the 2012 AL MVP with 22 of 28 first place votes.
The other six votes went to Trout. In an astounding anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better display, the Trout was called up from the minors for the Angels in late April, and proceeded to lead the league in runs (129), stolen bases (49) while posting a .326 average (second) with 30 round-trippers.
All at the tender age of 20.
This year, they're going at it again. Cabrera has started hotter (.367/17 HR/65 RBI through 55 games), but after a rough April Trout is starting to catch fire and meet his pace. In the month of May, Trout hit .327 with eight home runs and eight stolen bases. His sterling glove-work (a big argument for him receiving the MVP award last year) remains top-notch, and at 3.0 wins-above-replacement (W.A.R.), he's currently the fifth best position player in baseball.
Miguel Cabrera's 3.4 W.A.R. puts him in third place.
Whether or not Trout stays hot or falls into a sophomore slump remains to be seen; Cabrera, too, could get injured or somehow derailed in hsi chase for the MVP. However whatever the case, it's clear that the rivalry is friendly, and Trout has nothing but awe for his contemporary in Detroit.
"He's an unbelievable hitter," Trout said in an interview with Yahoo!'s Jeff Passan. "His numbers are off the charts. He's on pace for some crazy RBIs. Just his approach: hitting fastballs the other way, turning on off-speed and especially his approach on two strikes. You make one bad pitch, and he is going to hit it."
Not that Trout is too bad himself. On Monday, Major League Baseball released the first round of All-Star balloting. With nearly 1.2 million votes, Trout is the second most popular player in the American League.
Only Miguel Cabrera's 1.5 million votes are better.