Did everyone get their invitation to the Mike Trout Coming Out Party? In case you somehow missed it, Mike Trout made a little bit of history my becoming the youngest player in Angels history to hit multiple home runs in one game. I think it is safe to say that this is the day that Mike Trout’s star was born.
By way of two Vlad-esque golf shot homers, Mike Trout announced his presence in the big leagues with authority. He may have already hit three home runs in his brief career, but for someone his age to hit two homers in one game in a cavernous ballpark like Safeco, that is something awfully hard to chalk up to sheer luck. We had all heard about Trout’s vast potential, but to see it manifest itself like this so early still comes as a surprise. Players at his age, even the ones that went on to be legends, almost NEVER perform well, but it looks like Trout is well on his way to bucking that trend. What makes it even more impressive is that his power was supposed to be his one trait that was going to take more time to develop.
Somewhere in here I should probably issue some sort of small sample size warning, but that is more of a cover my ass statement. The more we see of Trout, the more and more it is obvious that the sky really is the limit when it comes to assessing hsi potential. The only question remaining with him now is… wait for it… you know it is coming… here it is……….. will Scioscia keep playing him? Come on, you didn’t really think I wasn’t going to rain on the parade a little bit did you?
Trout has been unstoppable since being recalled, so he deserves playing time, but with Wells and Abreu starting to produce Scioscia can’t risk benching either of them since he doesn’t want to sabotage his veterans who are FINALLY starting to get going. Granted, it is a good kind of problem to have, but it is still a problem and one which I think doesn’t have any answers that are going to make many people happy.
Game Notes
- Since I am stuck watching the Seattle broadcast, I’m not sure if the Fox Sports West covered it (they probably did), but Seattle’s starter, Anthony Vasquez, is actually the son of an area scout for the Angels, which is a cute but ultimately incidental coincidence. However, I have to know, does his father give his son a scouting report on the Angel hitters knowing that the kid might never get another shot? Or does he keep his mouth shut? Or, better yet, does he give the Angels a deliberately faulty scouting report on his son?
- Jerome Williams was solid yet again. And, yet again, it comes against weak competition. Even with that though we do know a bit more about Jerome. First, he continues to be a strike-throwing groundball machine. If he keeps that up, he should be able to stick in the majors as a back-of-the-rotation starter, at a minimum. It also appears that he struggles out of the stretch. That’s something he can work on, but it also explains why he has been so shaky in his two relief appearances.
- Every time Jerome Williams pitched to Wily Mo Pena, I had to check my calendar to make sure I didn’t mistakenly travel back in time to 2003.
- Was anyone else disappointed that the game didn’t end at 4-1 so that we could say that it was an all fish game since Trout and Carp were the only guys with RBIs at that point?
Halo Hero
Our Savior has arrived!