JABO: Mike Trout Has a New Trick
As he celebrates his 24th birthday, it’s worth asking if there’s anything Mike Trout can’t do. In any case, there apparently is one more thing he can do.
It got lost in the haze of the week of the trade deadline, but I want to take you back to a recent Trout performance against the Rangers. Let’s look at a pitch that Nick Martinez threw. The approximate location:
Clearly low, clearly inside (relative to the middle of the plate). Trout swung, and this is where the ball went:
Home run, right field. Now, for a lot of players, it’s enough to hit one home run. I’ve set up what’s going to follow. A full-count pitch later in the same game, thrown by Spencer Patton:
Another pitch in. Another Trout swing. The result:
That, to the opposite side of center field. Twice in one game, Trout went deep. Twice in one game, Trout went deep to what could technically be referred to as the opposite field. Twice in one game, Mike Trout did that on inside pitches. Intuitively, that seems like a hard thing to do. When you think about it, it follows that inside pitches get pulled, and outside pitches get pushed. That is, generally, the way things go, at least when you’re talking about balls hit with authority. But, see, Trout has learned something.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
Pitchers hate him!
Learn how to make pitchers hate you too with one easy trick!
Congrats, take an upvote. I laughed out loud.
Pshh
Check out the flex on the bat in Pic #3.
It has nothing to do with the flex of the bat. Its the speed of the bat head in relation to the speed of the camera exposure.
Check out the bat speed relative to the speed of the camera exposure in Pic #3.
Even a wooden bat flexes a ittle but do some reading on “rolling shutter”
Fascinating article – thanks, Jeff.
Trout – like Ruth, like Mays – continues to succeed partly b/c he shatters conventional wisdom about how players are supposed to act on the field. In other words, what he’s doing seems as much mental/creative as it is physical. Who would have the gall to think that driving low inside pitches to the opposite field is a useful strategy? It’s almost like he looked to other sports – here I’m thinking of cricket – to come up with this trick.
Maybe he watched some Kris Bryant highlights. Jeff had run a column on Bryant earlier this year showing him doing the same thing to an inside pitch, also by dropping the angle from his hands to the bat head. I remember thinking that Bryant had developed this skill because of his build, with a relatively shorter torso and longer legs, which might have forced him to use this kind of angle to reach low pitches in general.
But regardless of where he got this from, I agree this is an amazing adaptation by Trout.
Just some fantastic analysis, Jeff! Thanks.
Great article!
You mention Bryant being able to stay inside pitches when he is right, which made me relax a little bit.
Very Jeterish in the swing path. Just add power.
Yeah, once I read this, I immediately thought “didn’t Jeter used to do this all the time?”
Hey Jeff,
Going back to your last article on Trout – “the newest attempt to retire mike trout”, or something to that affect – where you mentioned he went from a hitter who was being pitched inside at a rate that was close to the top of the league, to being bottom 15 in that same location…it’s at least possible that this swing is an adjustment to that, right? Although I would say that this swing more closely resembles his swing from the first 2 years or so. Another great piece on Trout. I can’t wait to see what the next attempt will be.
The Newest Attempt to Retire Mike Trout – hopefully that puts the link in there to that article.
It didn’t. I’m a doof.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jabo-the-newest-attempt-to-retire-mike-trout/