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Major League Baseball will announce the winner of the 2015 American League Most Valuable Player award live on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET Thursday evening. In light of that, we're gonna make the case for each of the three candidates. Here's the case for Mike Trout.

For the fourth consecutive season, Angels center fielder Mike Trout is among the top three finishers in the AL MVP voting. He won the award in 2014 after finishing second in both 2012 and 2013.

Of course, Trout's run of dominance is most remarkable because he is mere 24 years old, and he just completed his fourth full season. He's been a bonafide MVP candidate all four years, if not the indisputable best player in the league. We're witnessing historic greatness, folks.

The 2015 season was arguably Trout's best to date. He hit .299/.402/.590 (176 OPS+) with 32 doubles, 41 home runs, 90 RBI and 11 steals. He led the league in WAR (9.4), slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+, and set new career highs in homers, walks (92), total bases (339) and slugging percentage.

Remarkably, Trout did all of that even while being hampered by a wrist injury in the second half. It caused him to hit .218/.352/.337 in August, which represented his lowest OPS in any month since being called up in 2012. Those August numbers would have been worse if not for a 4 for 4 game against the Indians on the second to last day of the month:

Think about how good Trout must have been outside August to finish with overall season numbers that good. Actually, don't think about it, I'll tell you: Trout hit .316/.413/.643 excluding August. He was brilliant.

There's also the "clutch" angle to consider. Trout hit .352/.508/.693 (222 OPS+) with runners in scoring position, the highest OPS in baseball by 37 points. He reached base more often than he made an out in those situations. Think about that.

Trout also hit .325/.426/.699 (211 ERA+) in high-leverage spots, the highest OPS in the league by 49 points. Trout was the best player in the league in so-called clutch situations by no small margin this past season.

And, of course, there's the defense. Oh gosh, the defense:

The biggest knock against Trout's MVP candidacy is the fact the Angels did not make the postseason, and therefore he didn't experience the same kind of pressure as Lorenzo Cain and Josh Donaldson, the other MVP finalists. That argument is lazy at best and intellectually dishonest at worst.

For starters, the Royals won the AL Central by 12 games and were on cruise control all September. The last thing Cain experienced that month was pressure. The Blue Jays won the AL East by six games and clinched a postseason spot with a week and a half left in the season, so Donaldson & Co. had time to catch their breath before the postseason.

Trout? He and the Angels were in the race right down to the final weekend. In fact, they weren't eliminated from postseason contention until literally Game 162. They were playing meaningful games all season and Trout was a huge reason why. There is zero chance they stay in the race until the final day without Trout. If anything, Trout faced more pressure than Cain and Donaldson down the stretch.

I think we've reached the point where Trout is so obviously great and deserving of the MVP award that people look for reasons to not give it to him. He led the league in OPS+, led the league in WAR, and had the Angels in the race on the final day of the season. If that's not MVP worthy, I don't know what is.

Once again, Mike Trout was the AL's best player in 2015.
Once again, Mike Trout was the AL's best player in 2015. (USATSI)