Prospect Instinct: Mike Trout

Mike Trout was the 1st round pick for the Los Angeles Angels in 2009. Coming out of High School in the northeast he was overlooked by many teams simply because its tough to get a look at kids who play in that area of the country because of the short season. The winters are spend indoors in the cages of the basketball courts doing drills. So real game play is few and far between. But of the area scouts, Trout was considered a favorite out of the Northeast. The Angels must have been happy to get a 5 tool talent like Trout at the 26th overall pick. Trout spent little time getting acclimated, hitting .360 in his AZL pro debut. He flashed the speed and power that he was drafted for. But no one saw 2010 coming. Not in this way. Not this fast or this level. He’s continued to hit at a high rate currently sitting at .361 and he’s not hitting everything in sight. He’s walked almost as much as he’s struck out. While on base this season he’s managed 44 SB. He’s been a man amongst boys. But he’s only 18. He won’t even turn 19 until August 7th.

Trout’s current average is probably unsustainable. His BABIP is unusually high. But this is a .300 type hitter nonetheless. His OBP is true to his wOBA or his real onbase percentage. So what he’s doing as a hitter is a true skill and not just a tool. He’s an elite level hitter right now, with an elite eye. He was projected to have power to at least an average level and his 0.165 is above that projection.  His K% is elite. His BB% is elite. He’s still only 18. So there is a long way to go and many pitfalls that need to be overcome before I dub him a future All-Star.

I’m going to hand this off to Aaron Bentley who broke down some video




SETUP

Trout uses the same general setup that most hitters use.  However, every part of him is moving like crazy during the setup phase of his swing.  His body, his bat, and his head are all moving way more than I would like to see.

HEAD MOVEMENT

As I mentioned in the Setup section, Trout moves everything a lot before swinging.  In moving his body, he tends to even move his shoulders, which causes his head to dip and rise.  This makes his eye level change while waiting for the pitch and has to make it harder to consistently get the release point of the pitcher and see the pitch on time.

LOWER HALF

Trout uses his lower half very well to create power.  He plants his foot on time and lets his hips guide his hands through the zone.  You will see me use a sentence similar to that last one a lot when discussing hitting mechanics.  That is because that is how it is supposed to be done.  Guys like Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians and Mike Trout do it very well.  If you want to know why Mike Trout has elite level power, as Tom discussed in his recent MWL Hitters piece, this is why.

STRIDE

Unlike the setup of Trout’s swing, his swing is relatively quiet and effortless.  He brings his leg up sort of high, but gets it up and down without making too much noise.  This aids in his ability to hit for average, power, and not strike out very much at all.

EXTENSION

There is nothing negative to say about Trout’s extension.  He covers the plate extremely well.  There could be some minor improvements to be made here but what he’s doing well certainly work.

CONCLUSION

You hate to mess around too much with a guy’s swing when he’s absolutely destroying the ball the way Mike Trout is.  However, I would seriously consider trying to quiet his setup down a bit if I were a hitting instructor in the Angels system.  It may not cause him problems now, with A-ball pitchers, but as the stuff gets harder to hit, it could become more and more of a problem.  Better to fix it now, especially since it’s not anything truly mechanical.