2011 Topps Update Black Mike Trout ROOKIE /60 #US175 SGC 9 MINT

In 2021, the New York Times called Mike Schmidt baseball’s greatest draft pick of all time. The newspaper made that determination by calculating how many Wins Above Replacement a player earned for the team which drafted him. In Schmidt’s case, he gave the Phillies 106.9 more wins than the average replacement-level player. Others joining Schmidt near the top of the list include Cal Ripken Jr., George Brett, Albert Pujols, Chipper Jones—and Mike Trout, who Schmidt suspects will eventually take his crown. “Oh sure, absolutely, are you kidding?” Schmidt said. “He seems to be the kind of kid that will.” Trout entered 2023 with a career WAR of 82.4. He led the American League in the category in each season from 2012 to ’16, and he has never recorded a WAR lower than 6.0 in any full season. In lieu of a significant injury, dip in production, or a trade away from the Angels, Trout will likely overtake Schmidt as MLB’s best draft pick of all time in the next 4-5 years. Trout’s arrival in the major leagues in 2011 coincided with the 60th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, giving him a full slate of colorful rookie parallels in the 2011 Topps Update release. Starting in 2006, Topps began producing a Black parallel set each year, and the serial numbering for it corresponds to the number of years the company had produced baseball cards. An SGC 9 example of Trout’s 2011 Topps Update /60 Black rookie card will likely land atop many collectors’ draft boards in this month’s Premier Auction. SGC has never assessed another example of this rookie offering, so one collector can move closer to having the most unique Trout collection with this card in it.