Beware baseball: Mike Trout working to get even better

MESA, Ariz. – This is not Mike Trout’s most comfortable arena, first day back, standing on the right field warning track, arms folded over his chest, feet planted shoulder width, cameras and questions invasive, and some dude asking if he has a name for his glove.

A name for his glove.

At 23, he is a unanimous MVP and twice a runner-up. He doesn’t play the game as much as he catches it under his shoe and stubs it out. He’s got a little face stubble going, which is noticeable when the sun hits it just right. He’s got a Corvette in his garage in Jersey, a gift – the car, not the state – for being the best player at the last All-Star Game.

There’s hardly ever been anyone like him, this young and this decorated and this aw-shucks, and it doesn’t seem to matter we’re in a severe offensive downturn, as Mike Trout just keeps running against the trend. So he comes to camp and it’s kind of an event, which means a temporary backdrop and a mic stand and, man, he shoulda answered “McGlovin” or something but he didn’t, because the questions come fast, and the next is about filming a sandwich commercial the day before with Clayton Kershaw, who, for the record, is “a great guy.”

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It is next to impossible to watch Trout for the better part of the day – he is friendly if not necessarily insightful to the cameras and questions, he charges his groundballs from center field, and he stays inside first-day, pitching-machine curveballs and whacks them into right field – and not wonder what he’ll be when he reaches, you know, his prime. When he’s all grown up.

He reported at 239 pounds, one more pound than last year. He’s still thick in the arms, shoulders and chest. He’s healthy. He’s smiling a lot, because it’s time to play ball, and for as long as we’ve known him he’s said the same thing about the relationship between the game and him: “I’m having fun with it.”

The rest is, minute by minute, becoming history. He does not linger much on yesterday, other than admitting the division series wipeout and his part in it (one hit in 12 at-bats) was a nightmare. He doesn’t go on much about tomorrow, other than to say, yeah, he’d like to cut down on his strikeouts and he’d like to steal more bases. He does, however, cling to today with a certain amount of ferocity, which makes sense, as his todays have a lot going for them.

The general problem here is this was a 98-win team that went to the playoffs, and when the playoffs were over it was still a 98-win team. It’s a long way back to an AL West title, starting with a long winter, and Trout said he carried that series with him for a good amount of time. He might still be carrying parts of it.

“It was a terrible feeling,” he said. “This year we don’t want to have that same feeling.”

He’d returned to Jersey, watched only a few of the games that went on without Trout and his Angels and tried to clear his head of the anxious and fruitless at-bats, only to have his friends bring it up again. At that point, might as well get back to the baseball. The only way to get it right is to try it again.

“Maybe I put a little too much pressure on myself,” he admitted. “You know, first time and all.”

Mike Trout WAR Over Career | PointAfter

His plan is to lay off the high fastballs that contributed to his league-high 184 strikeouts, a process that started in the cage Wednesday morning. It would appear to be the only soft area of his game – he’d leapt from 136 strikeouts in 589 at-bats in 2013 to those 184 in 602. The strikeouts did not keep him from being great, but Trout maintained a thoroughly logical view of them anyway.

“Obviously,” he said, “you don’t want to strike out.”

So there you go.

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One potentially interesting variable is the league’s new pace-of-play initiative, which asks hitters to keep one foot in the batter’s box at all times. Trout’s habit is to clear out of the box, take a couple swings, and then climb back in. That’s not supposed to happen anymore. His manager, Mike Scioscia, said Trout’s routine shouldn’t be in violation, however, because it – he contends – is within the spirit of the rule.

“Mike’s always ready when the pitcher’s ready,” Scioscia said.

Trout sees it differently, though the two perhaps hadn’t talked yet. He said he’d use the coming six weeks to change his routine.

“I’m going to have to,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to adjust to, but it’s the rule.”

Asked if he could appreciate the message behind the pace-of-play objective, he said, “It’s different. But that’s the route they’re going.”

It would appear a minor inconvenience to a guy who, by rights, probably can’t wait to get into the batter’s box. That’s his area, give or take a few strikeouts. And this is his game, starting Wednesday again.

There was, however, one small, nagging question.

Trout narrowed his eyes. Smiled politely. Maybe he hadn’t heard quite right.

“Does my glove have a name?” he said.

A name.

“No,” he said. “I don’t call it anything.”

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