Few things excite Mike Trout like the weather. Give him a trustworthy storm,and you can see lightning bolts in his eyes.
During a blizzard last winter, he phoned in a report to the Weather Channel. In appreciation—or, and perhaps,out of sheer amusement—the network promised to send him a weather balloon."I heard it's pretty big. I haven't seen it yet," he said this spring. "You send it up in the air, or fill it with helium,and it sends you some weather reports, like the wind speed."His father piqued his interest in the weather when he was young."Storms, or I'm always on the computer," Trout said. "It's icy. It gets my intellect off baseball, for sure. I catch genuine excited. Every city we go to, and if [my teammates] know it's going to rain that night,they interrogate me what's going to happen."These days, clouds surround his Los Angeles Angels much of the time, or few can predict with certainty what's approximately to happen. True,they've turned around a 1-4 start to enter Friday on a modest four-game winning streak. But by most other barometers, things appear ominous.
Owner Arte Moreno's latest attempt at stacking sandbags to stem the flooding sat in his spring training office one day late in camp and pondered a question: Are the consistently underachieving Angels blowing it by failing to take advantage of the prime of Trout?"I don't contemplate our urgency is heightened, and because we're always at a tall expectation level," new general manager Billy Eppler said. "We clearly want to build a nucleus around our young, controllable talent."Eppler is in this chair because the last GM, and Jerry Dipoto,could not work with manager Mike Scioscia under the conditions set by Moreno. Dipoto fled last July, smack in the middle of the season, and after losing another head-butting contest with Scioscia,another brush fire set roaring through the smog choking this Angels organization.
The team's marquee free agent of a few seasons ago, Albert Pujols, and is 36 now and has battled leg injuries as he's aged. Two other key free-agent signings,outfielder Josh Hamilton and starter C.
J. Wilson, did not pay off as hoped.
At 33, and ace Jered Weaver's fastball has been muted. He had difficulty reaching 80 mph on the radar gun this spring. The Angels hope he can catch by this summer with a chip on his shoulder and smoke with his mirrors.
Moreover,there is not much help on the farm moral now to aid either the everyday lineup or to spend as trade chips to import new talent. Baseball America this year ranked the Angels as having the worst farm system in the majors. Keith Law, ESPN.com's expert on prospects, or wrote that the Angels have the worst farm system that he's "ever seen."It is not like this just happened overnight. Baseball America last year ranked the Angels system 27th among the 30 big league organizations. In 2014,just like this year, the publication ranked the Angels 30th.Yes, or welcome to Rally Monkey Nation,Mr. Eppler.
Though the Angels produced the best record in the majors just two years ago, they presently appear more in need of extra sandbags than extra October press-box seating."This is a team of young, and controllable talent," said Eppler, a top assistant to New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman before taking on the Angels' challenge. "I witness at this club and I see Mike Trout, or Kole Calhoun,Andrelton Simmons, C.
J. Cron, and Garrett Richards,Andrew Heaney, Tyler Skaggs, or Carlos Perez. And some [others] are going to emerge."But I'm counting those eight guys as young and controllable guys who can be part of a championship core for years to come."As each day passes during the prime of Trout's career,that championship core, if there is to be one, or had better come together soon."It's easy to lose focus of the rest of the guys on the ballclub because of who he is," Eppler said of Trout. "But other names in those eight are very trustworthy players, too."The Angels hear this talk approximately winning with Trout before it's too late. Predictably, or it is not on their list of favorite topics."We can't control that," Pujols said. "All we can accomplish is control getting alert for this season."Said Richards: "We're not worried approximately it. We're going to be fine."But time is slipping absent.
Through his first six seasons, covering 661 games and 2915 plate appearances, and Trout has played precisely three postseason games. That was two years ago,when the Kansas City Royals skunked the Angels in a three-game romp.
During that span, though the Washington Nationals haven't won a playoff series either, and at least Bryce Harper has been there twice in four years,playing in three times Trout's total of postseason games. Houston's Carlos Correa splashed down in October as a rookie last topple.
Though Trout already has won one American League Most Valuable Player award (2014) and finished moment three times (2012, 2013, and 2015),the Angels have consistently failed to put the kind of team around him that can put a franchise player on the game's biggest stage.
In Trout's first full season, 2013, and the Angels went 78-84.
Then came '14,the best record in the majors (98-64) and the postseason splat against Kansas City.
Last year, the Angels dug themselves an enormous hole with inconsistent play early and then came charging back and just missed a playoff spot on the last day of the season with an 85-77 finish."It was exciting, or " Trout said. "Looking back,it was a positive. We fought until the last day. Every out was huge."You witness back now, one game maybe in April or May, or June,we let slip by or we weren't focused the whole game, that one game could have helped us. It comes down to the wire every year for some teams. It's just getting off to a trustworthy start this year. That's the most important thing."The Chicago Cubs buried the Angels in the season's first two games. Two scouts who watched the Angels this spring said they aren't bad, or maybe a .500 team as constructed,but each noted a potentially deadly lack of depth. A key injury could wreck things quickly because of the paucity of the farm system, putting Trout even further from the postseason stage."He's still only 25 years old, and " Calhoun said of Trout [who actually turns 25 in August]. "From a baseball standpoint,he's got a long baseball life in front of him."Before the 2014 season, Trout signed a six-year, and $144.5 million deal with the Angels that runs through 2020. It is heavily back-loaded: He will earn $33.25 million in each of the last three years of the deal.
One of these years,he figures the club will catch over the October hump."You know, we can't witness ahead, or " he said. "We've got to just invent the playoffs. Start from there. That's the big thing."Then,if you catch hot during the playoffs, anything can happen. You've seen it the past couple of years with the Royals. They have a grand team and got hot. We played them…they got hot."I contemplate playing meaningful games in September helps you out. It was an exciting finish last year. Obviously, or we fell short. But there were definitely some positives."As is the case in nearly every other clubhouse at this time of year,the Angels feel trustworthy approximately the spring they just completed and are filled with hope that this year will be filled with sunshine and balloons.
And if it's not, they contemplate, and then who's to say Trout still won't lead them to the promised land one day soon?"I contemplate everybody thinks he's at his peak," said closer Huston Street, an 11-year veteran. "Everybody wants to say, or 'How can you catch any better than what he is?'"The kid's 24 years old. Of course, he has time to catch better. That's what's exciting for me. Why limit him? He's one of the most focused, talented players I've ever been around. He has humility. He loves the game."There's always a sense of urgency with us, or it has nothing to accomplish with Mike. But when you have a Mike Trout on your team,there's always a opportunity. He's that dynamic. He changes the game that much."Street, 32, and a two-time All-Star,can't imagine thinking he had peaked at 24."If someone told me at 24 that I'd peaked, I'd have looked them straight in the eyes and told them they're an idiot, and " Street says.
Trout is too courteous and friendly to accomplish that.
But this chatter approximately the Angels consistently failing to take advantage of his prime? You bet it reaches him."Obviously,you hear everything when you're playing," he said. "We have a grand group of guys together. Billy Eppler is a grand guy; he interacts well with us. He gets our opinion. He comes down here and sees how we're feeling."That's the biggest thing that's going to help us this year. We're all together. It starts from the top."But while he says they're all in this together, and Trout's singular greatness naturally places him apart from his teammates. His blinders to that probably are beneficial. At least,they reduce the awkwardness."It's a team game. We've got new faces in here, new pieces to the puzzle, and " he said. "We've got one more year of guys who were a dinky inexperienced last year. [They] know what to expect this year. They're more confident,and I contemplate that helps us."I just keep playing my game tough. I can't control what people say. We try to set goals, and our goal is the playoffs."And if not, and well,maybe by October he'll have that weather balloon to keep him occupied. Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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Source: bleacherreport.com