“I do a lot of work maintaining my legs, keeping them fresh, working on strength. But speed is important for both offense and defense,” Trout said. “All the other stuff - hitting for power, throwing arm - they mainly help you on one side. He has a textbook swing powered by some of the fastest hands in the game, allowing him to spray hits with authority despite looking like he’s placing them precisely where he intends.īut his quick feet form the tool that Trout maintains he treasures most. He also patrols center field as though he’s playing right and left, too.įor that reason, it’s no surprise that Trout was a unanimous choice this spring of Baseball Writers Association of America members who took part in a Star Tribune survey asking to name each league’s best “Five-Tool Player.” Adam Jones and Manny Machado, both of Baltimore, finished second and third in the AL balloting, but nobody listed any name but “Trout” on the top line.Īnd you don’t have to watch him long to understand why. He led the AL in stolen bases as a rookie, he’s finished in the top 10 of the first two batting races he’s been a part of, and he reached 75 home runs third-fastest in baseball history. “It’s just I’m comfortable.”Ĭomfort is something that Trout denies the pitchers he faces. It’s like staying with family when you go visit them,” Trout said. “People always mention that, but it’s not like I’m home much. Trout speaks to his parents, Debbie and Jeff, every day, he said, and he famously still lives in the family house in Millville, N.J., in the offseason. “He was brought up right.”Īnd still is, in some ways. He’s a very grounded young man who just loves to play baseball,” said Trout’s manager, Mike Scioscia. In a recent 15-minute conversation, Trout mentioned “respect” or used the phrase “respect for the game” seven times, a BHQ (basic humble quotient) of 5.42 that confirms about his makeup what his OPS+, WAR and PSN, not to mention every scouting report in existence, tell us about his makeup. More bashful than brash, more reverent than rash, Trout may be the last person on Earth who would ever publicly suggest something that virtually everyone else, scouts and sabermetricians alike, agrees is settled: That he is, at age 22, the best all-around player in the game already. I mean, I gave him his space,” Trout said. So what did Trout say to the great Yankees closer? “Last year, just being in the same clubhouse with Mariano, knowing that’s one of the greatest ever standing right there, it was pretty awesome.” It’s so cool to be around them, get to talk to them, sit on the bench with them, just be in the same dugout with all those stars,” Mike Trout says, staring straight ahead as he remembers it. I’m not that old, so I’m in that clubhouse with guys I’ve watched growing up. But the moment a ballplayer walks through that clubhouse door and sees his temporary teammates, when he recognizes the faces of the greatest the game has to offer and realizes he belongs among them, that’s when the truth strikes: The All-Star Game is really for the players. They may grumble about the lost days off, they may complain about the extra travel and the endless promotional responsibilities that are foisted on them. ¶ But the stars themselves know different. They get to vote, they get to debate, they get to watch and cheer - it’s all for the fans, baseball sells us, and we buy it. People like to say that the All-Star Game is for the fans.
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