![]() Like Trout is playing a different game than everyone else. He threw the ball to second base to stop Pujols from advancing, never expecting Trout would aggressively turn for home. So Davis played it as almost any player would. But this was early in the season, before the baseball world had fully begun to grasp just how special Trout was. Had he been expecting it, he easily could have picked it up and made the throw home to at least make it close. The ball didn't bounce all that far away from him. But when Blue Jays right fielder Rajai Davis dropped the ball, Trout - relying on only the instruction of third-base coach Dino Ebel - rounded third and headed for home, scoring easily.ĭavis seemed stunned. After leading off with a double, he tagged up on Albert Pujols' fly ball to right. In the first inning of the Angels' 10-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on July 1, Trout started out coloring within the lines. If the ball is going to be a sure catch, the runner heads back to second, tags up and, if he thinks he can make it, heads for third as soon as the outfielder catches the ball. The rule is pretty simple: When the ball is hit to the outfield, a baserunner on second base goes a quarter of the way to third until he can make a decision about whether the ball is going to get past the outfielder. Make Rajai Davis question his assumptions. So before baseball crowns its new champion and fall turns to winter and then spring, here's a look back, an appreciation of the 10 things Mike Trout should not have been able to do this year but did anyway.ġ. The problem with replication, though, is that it's never quite as good as the original. If that's his base, or even if he does anything close to that in the future, he will be an automatic Hall of Famer. 320 or better with 30 homers and 45 stolen bases in a season. He became the first major leaguer to steal 45 bases, score 125 runs and hit 30 home runs in a season. Trout's rookie season was one for the ages. It is the burden all great players must bear: Do something amazing, and forever be held to that standard. The catch against which all other catches - including the three other home run-saving catches Trout made - will be measured. The play becomes the catch of the year in baseball. ![]() That's Trout: supernaturally athletic and powerful, freakishly fast, and nothing like you've seen before. Got it! And as he holds up the ball to show the umpire, he lets out a joyful "Hoo-ahh," and you realize, this time, he's impressed even himself. His body absorbs the shock like a tight end coming across the middle. Trout doesn't just get up his feet are four feet off the ground, even with the Southwest Airlines sign on the outfield wall. It's not until you slow it down that the catch becomes iconic. Hardy looks like a pretty good catch - better than an average robbery, but nothing Ken Griffey Jr. ![]() In real time, Trout's over-the-wall grab of a sure home run off the bat of J.J. Very few right-handed batters can cover the 90 feet from home to first in less than four seconds.Īccording to biomechanical analysis from the International Association of Athletics Federations, the fastest Usain Bolt has ever run is 27.78 miles an hour over a 20-meter split when he broke the 100-meter dash record (9.58 seconds) back in 2009.īut to fully appreciate the brilliance of the play Trout made June 27 at Camden Yards in Baltimore, you have to slow it down. That's obscenely fast for a baseball player. In early May, the Angels clocked Trout at 3.53 seconds running out a bunt to first base, which translates to an average of 17.38 miles an hour. Mike Trout hit the ground running when he was called up at the end of April. ![]() It took him just 31 more days to compel Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland to make an impassioned case as to why Miguel Cabrera should win an MVP award in a year he became the first player in 45 years to hit for the Triple Crown. It took him another year and two days to play on his first All-Star team. It took him just two years and 29 days to reach the major leagues after the Los Angeles Angels took him 25th overall in the 2009 draft. ![]()
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