Mike Trout looked as if he had just bitten into a lemon. His face went through a series of contortions after the rookie, a graduate of Millville High, was asked a simple question: Had he thought about the possibility of being named an all-star in his rookie season?
“No,” the 20-year-old outfielder with the Los Angeles Angels said politely, but emphatically. “I don’t look at that stuff.”
...Eddie Bane, who was scouting director of the Angels at the time and is now a scout for the Detroit Tigers, said Trout was the second player on the Angels’ board, behind Stephen Strasburg, who was taken first by Washington and has justified that selection.
“The Yankees also had him as their No. 2 player, and they were selecting after us, and I told them he would never get to them,” Bane said.
...The Angels had two picks in the draft - Nos. 24 and 25. At 24, they took Randal Grichuk, a high school outfielder from Texas now playing in single A. Trout was taken next.
If Trout was second on their board, why wasn’t he picked first by the Angels at No. 24?
“It was a little bit of gamesmanship,” Bane said. “We were going to take both of them, but Mike’s agent had put out a different [financial] figure before the draft.”
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. YR Misses Reggie Bars Posted: June 12, 2012 at 10:13 AM (#4154525)OK, we never have to hear any of those phrases again.
Good month so far. He put on a show last night (2 hits, homer, 2 stolen bases, walk) and it was fun listening to Vin Scully gush over his talent.
Tim Salmon pun.
This will not do! It is just laziness disguised as meta humor. If you've got a Tim Salmon pun up your sleeve, I dare you to use it.
I think it's total plate appearances while filling the role of left fielder. Trout and Trumbo have been used elsewhere.
Trout is 2 starts behind Bourjos at the CF position.
Trumbo is nowhere near any starting-player designation since he has played 4 games at 1B, 8 games at 3B, 12 games at LF, 20 games at RF, and 8 games at DH.
I'm fairly sure it is just the games or innings or PA leader at each position, and because they split positions while Wells was mostly in LF, neither Trout nor Trumbo lead the team at any one position. Which is annoying (knowing who the actual starter was intended to be on each day tells us more than just playing time), but understandable given that it has to go back to 1876.
Crap, there goes all my Coke.
Ditto - I was thinking it was from the Jersey Devil episode of the X-files, but not certain...
dingdingding!
I was checking Trout's strikeout rate last night as well, and he and Pujols have both slashed their K rates over the past couple of weeks with no loss of power--must be something in the water. I never cared about the Angels one way or another outside of the 2002 Series, but if they're going to have Pujols, Haren, Weaver (who I've liked ever since he put on the BotB to join his brother on the field after Game 5 of the 2006 World Series), and the latter-day Tyrus R. Cobb together for a few more years, I might have to tune into a few more of their broadcasts.
Checking BBRef.com, he is already LEADING the AL in SBs with 15.
Why not? Nobody (well almost nobody) gets IBB with bases empty. So you can IBB Trout when someone at the bottom of the order is on base. Especially if it's one of the catchers, who usually hit 9th. That's probably the only way to slow down Trout - he's not allowed to pass the catcher on the bases.
With Trout being on the Angels, I assumed that would never happen.
Pujols since May 15: .344 / .407 / .677 over 25 games (8 2b, 8 HR, 3 SB).
Also on a nice little streak, with two hits in each of his last six games.
Trout since May 15: .385 / .440 / .577, also 25 games (5 2b, 3 3b, 3 HR, 11 SB).
Trout has a fluky-high BABIP during this time; Pujols doesn't.
Would it be fair to say that, because Trout is essentially an unknown to opponents, they don't know how to position the defense to get him out more frequently?
He is channeling Enzo Hernandez.
EDIT: Gratuitous snark removed.
unless repoz is solely referencing bill's uncanny ability to lead the world in humpback liners
Trout's spray chart. Right now, it looks like you have to play him straight up.
The effect would be a few hits that would be outs if the opponents knew better where to position themselves. A few hits are perceptible.
YM Kevin Bass
C: Steve Pickerell (minors)
1B: Mike Carp
2B: Johnny Ray
3B: Melvin Mora
SS: Harry Spratt
OF: Mike Trout
OF: Kevin Bass
OF: Tim Salmon
DH: Sid Bream
SP: Catfish Hunter
RP: George Haddock
Agreed.
Especially with defensive metrics and heavy shifts all the rage -- I suspect that there MIGHT well be something to this... But it may well be also true that there's really no 'best' alignment beyond playing him straight up.
Can someone share observations about Trumbo's D? Dramatically unsatisfactory at 3B? Is he average at 1B, how is he in the OF? They HAVE to continue to play him for his bat at this point, I would assume.
Looks like he's been playing LF every day since Hunter's been back (other alignment is Hunter out, Bourjos in at CF, Trout to LF, Trumbo to RF), and Morales is pretty much locked in at DH. Is Morales not able to play the field at all? He's had 1 start at 1B, none in the OF. What happens when Wells comes back - looks like that's in about a month?
He's a superfast spray line drive hitter. How much more are we going to learn and how many hits will it save, and how will we ever be able to evaluate these things?
I maintain that the idea that this is contributing to his too-high babip in a meaningful way is a bit silly.
Dismissive reference to Chien-Ming Wang.
I think you are probably right about it being imperceptible, but not because the effect is "so tiny" as you said in the other post. If there was some effect of bad positioning, it wouldn't be tiny because he has so few at-bats that a few hits would change his BA and BABIP. Just because we can't at this point (or maybe ever) evaluate and quantify the effect doesn't eliminate the possibility that teams are mis-positioning themselves against him thus far.
i have only seen trumbo at third via mlb extra innings and tv can play tricks on my perception
that being stated i would put him somewhere between bear batting a fish and wes helms on a bad day
i think at one point mark had more errors than putouts. or it was 5 putouts to 4 errors.
i think it was then that mike pulled the plug
Not this season — the Angels aren't taking any chances with his ankle. Morales also looks like he's gained about 600 pounds during his off-time, so I don't see a lot of 3B in his future, and with Pujols at first, probably no 1B for the Angels except for the occasional spot start.
Excellent comment & memory. Those two have the shortest right-handed stroke I have ever seen. And after Trout's finished with his, his body is in perfect balance & position to sprint down the line. It's really something, and looks a helluva lot better than last year, when he started out by lunging a lot.
Seems like you answered your own question. He started a game at first with Pujols playing third. I would not be surprised to see that again during interleague play. Having Morales play in the outfield seems like a disaster, that's probably as likely as asking Trout to play catcher, or Jered Weaver to try second base.
Anyway, there are some seasons 390+. The highest sustained BABIPs over the last decade are in the 350s (Votto, Kemp, Choo and Ichiro at 349). Kemp and CarGo (347) are probably the most similar to Trout.
Mike Trout reminds me of a much faster, much stronger, more patient version of Bill Madlock.
But otherwise, they're like twins!
The Tigers would listen if he called.
Ichiro in 2004?
Looked it up, and... nope.
I just did too. Holy cow, I never would have gotten that. Wow.
Ichiro in 2004 was second since 01 though, so I was close.
Mark Reynolds in 2009? Not high BA if I remember correctly, but an insane amount of strikeouts.
1B: acceptable
3B: catastrophic
OF: good effort, but not good job
Obviously that first month counts, and you would never expect someone in his 30s to put up offensive numbers on a par with his career marks, but, not bad at all.
Having Morales play in the outfield seems like a disaster, that's probably as likely as asking Trout to play catcher, or Jered Weaver to try second base.
Wow, no kidding. I actually had no idea how little OF he had played in MLB to this point (too much fantasy, not enough mother's basement, I guess). I had thought of him as primarily an outfielder so I figured he was just behind Wells/Bourjos/Hunter and Abreu/Trout, and they preferred Trumbo to him in the field either way. I guess that's just another roundabout way of answering my own question.
While I have your attention, what's wrong with Erick Aybar? Have we definitely passed 'slow start' territory yet?
I'm one of the guy's biggest fans and I had no idea. One un-uesful hint -- 404 BABIP in that season, 324 career. One useful hint -- HW should know this one.
Lip Pike maybe in the OF.
Definitely not Dory Dean.
Are we overruling the Trouts (Dizzy and Steve) for more name variety?
If so I guess Catfish Metkovich doesn't make it, either.
Ted Williams once compared Molitor to Joe DiMaggio based on his manner and approach and swing.
According to Bill James, Kid Nichols said DiMaggio was the spitting image of Ed Delahanty in every respect.
I could see Delahanty being an 1890s version of Molitor, or of what Trout could become. (Seems unlikely Trout would develop along the lines of Joe D.)
Ed Delahanty led the league in batting (1), OBP (1), Slugging % (5), hits (1), doubles (5), triples (1), homers (1), RBIs (3), SB (1).
Without looking, I'd guess that the list of players who led the league in all of those categories at one time or another must be extremely small, and the only guy I can think of who probably did it is Ty Cobb.
Jose Valentin and/or Jose Hernandez? Please to be revealing answer.
Without looking, I'd guess that the list of players who led the league in all of those categories at one time or another must be extremely small, and the only guy I can think of who probably did it is Ty Cobb.
The first guy I thought of was Mays. He led the league in batting (1), OBP (2), Slugging % (5), hits (1), triples (3), homers (4), and SB (4). He never led the league in doubles (2nd once, 3rd twice) or RBIs (2nd twice, 3rd three times). He did lead the league in runs twice and walks once.
I actually looked at this recently (in reference to Melky Cabrera), and without looking it up again, I think it's one of those guys. Someone really off-the-wall like those guys, at any rate.
Edit > full disclosure. At first I typed "Jose Hernandez or Valentin, whichever one played for the Brewers," and then B-R told me that they both played for the Brewers.
Depends. Do Pujols and the bullpen still absolutely suck all throughout April in this hypothetical season?
Without looking, I'd guess that the list of players who led the league in all of those categories at one time or another must be extremely small, and the only guy I can think of who probably did it is Ty Cobb.
Honus Wagner is really close - led in all of them at various times except for homers, in which he was second twice.
On the other hand, Delahanty never led the league in runs. Cobb did indeed win titles in all of the listed categories, plus runs.
folks confuse him with jose valentin all the time but valentin was the superior player and i am inclined to say far superior
the ironic thing is that phil garner complained about valentin's strikeouts constantly yammer, yammer, yammer and then the team put up with hernandez striking out much more frequently.
granted, different manager. but still funny to a local fan.
valentin's 100 strikeouts were unacceptable but jose could strike out 180 times and that was fine.
hello?
I stayed up late to see Trout hit in the 9th (and listen to Vin), but as soon as Williams let a base runner on in the 8th he went into hypo-Trachsel mode. I think that inning took 40 minutes. And then Trout struck out on 3 pitches.
I guess he could've gone to Takahashi, but he's hardly been lights out for the Angels.
On the other hand, Conger had already gotten Williams out of the inning, so, whatjagonnado.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main