May 26, 2017 Page 1 of 23

Clips

(May 26, 2017)

May 26, 2017 Page 2 of 23

Today’s Clips Contents

FROM LOS ANGELES TIMES (Page 3)

Angels fall to Tampa Bay 4-0, putting both teams at .500

Angels' Andrelton Simmons good, not great, with glove this season

FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER (Page 5)

Angels go quietly in 4-0 loss to Rays Angels Notes: Cam Bedrosian among a group of quickly healing relievers

FROM ANGELS.COM (Page 8)

Returning relievers create 'pen logjam

Angels shut out in series finale

Maybin exits game with sore right knee

Trout takes Miami: Watch free on Facebook

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (Page 13)

Andriese, Rasmus help Rays beat Angels 4-0

Trout, Angels make first trip to Marlins Park

FROM ESPN.COM (Page 16)

Which players are doing the most to carry their teams?

Is it time for teams to treat Mike Trout like Barry Bonds?

FROM SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (Page 21)

Somehow, the remarkable Mike Trout is only getting better as he builds a historic

season

May 26, 2017 Page 3 of 23

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Angels fall to Tampa Bay 4-0, putting both teams at .500

By Pedro Moura

Baseball, in small samples, is always unpredictable. Extend a fragment a little further, though, and it all

starts to make sense.

The Angels and Tampa Bay Rays each entered their four-game series this week with 23 wins and 23

losses. Fittingly, they each exited it with 25 wins and 25 losses. Two .500 teams played .500 baseball.

The Angels lost 4-0 on Thursday afternoon to seal the truism. They scored only nine runs in the series,

and five of those were in the games’ first innings.

They threatened but managed nothing in Thursday’s first. To begin the game, Cameron Maybin began to

walk back to the dugout on what he thought was a called third strike. The ball clearly passed through the

strike zone. Somehow, plate umpire Andy Fletcher ruled it a ball.

When Maybin heard nothing, he returned to the batter’s box. He swung and missed the next pitch, then

completed an uninterrupted walk back to the dugout.

Mike Trout hammered Rays starter Matt Andriese’s next offering for a double to left field. Andrelton

Simmons soon drilled a single to right, and Trout executed a textbook turn around third base and went

home. Right fielder Steven Souza delivered a perfect throw, and Trout was out by a step.

“They’ve scored some early runs off us,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Any time you can prevent that

from happening, you come in energized in the dugout.”

In the bottom half of the inning, third baseman Luis Valbuena fumbled the first ball hit to him, by Rays

leadoff man Corey Dickerson. Spot starter Daniel Wright struck out two of the next three men he faced,

but let two more men reach to load the bases. Colby Rasmus then shot a two-run single to center field,

10 feet in front of Maybin, who was playing center field.

Trout was taking a half-day, serving as the Angels’ designated hitter while Albert Pujols rested.

The Angels put at least one man on base in each of the next three innings, but no one made it home.

Kole Calhoun led off the fourth with a drive to the right-field wall. He tried for two bases and would’ve

been out with another good throw from Souza. Instead, it was off line.

Valbuena made another defensive mistake to lead off the Rays’ half of the fourth, mishandling Souza’s

one-hopper to third. This time, he was not charged with an error, and it didn’t cost the Angels any runs.

Wright yielded a leadoff double to Dickerson to begin the fifth. He made it only two more batters before

rookie right-hander Keynan Middleton replaced him with one out and two men aboard.

May 26, 2017 Page 4 of 23

“He did what we expected him to,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Wright, who is likely to make

another start for the team Tuesday against Atlanta.

He replaced the injured Alex Meyer on Thursday, and Meyer cannot return until Wednesday.

Middleton had never before entered a major league game with men on base. In his first attempt to aid a

teammate, he recorded a strikeout, issued a walk, and then gave up a bases-loaded ground-rule double

to Rasmus.

Before the bottom of the sixth, the Angels removed Maybin and shifted several defenders around to

accommodate his departure. He later revealed his right knee had been bothering him.

“It was a little sore from running around on this turf the last few days,” Maybin said. “It was kind of achy

this morning. I got some treatment, felt better in the game. I just wasn’t quite used to running around.”

Rasmus hit his double to the deepest junction in the stadium. Maybin was several feet from the ball

when it bounced off the warning track but felt his body limited his effort.

“I thought, if my knee would’ve felt better, that I could’ve run that ball down,” Maybin said.

With two out in the next half-inning, the Angels amassed two baserunners for Cliff Pennington, who

took over Maybin’s leadoff spot. He worked the count to 3 and 2. One more ball, and Trout would bat as

the potential tying run. Andriese fired a fastball down the middle. Pennington swung, missed, and

slammed his helmet to the artificial turf.

The Angels didn’t generate another hit and loaded their bags for Miami in silence.

Angels' Andrelton Simmons good, not great, with glove this season

By Pedro Moura

It took Andrelton Simmons little time to construct a reputation as the best defensive shortstop in

baseball. Since his 2012 rookie season in Atlanta, scouts and advanced metrics have agreed on his

superlative fielding.

It’s early yet, but that unanimity is no more. Fifty games into 2017, the statistics measure him as good

but no longer great. He’s third among MLB shortstops in Ultimate Zone Rating, instead of his typical

first, and far off his own usual pace.

While it remains far too small of a sample to draw any definitive conclusions, Simmons notably agrees

with that assessment.

“Not great, but not bad,” he said this week when asked to evaluate his own performance. “Not the best.

I’m making the routine plays.”

The 27-year-old shortstop has made more errors than is typical for him, but he does not base his

judgment off those mistakes. He said he has failed to convert some improbable plays.

May 26, 2017 Page 5 of 23

“I know what my best is,” Simmons said. “I haven’t been great, but I haven’t been terrible. Maybe I’ve

been bad without knowing. You can tell me. But whenever I feel like maybe I could’ve done better, well,

there’s only so much you can do.”

On offense, he has continued the improvements he implemented near last season’s end, focusing on

pitches he can hit hard rather than pitches he can just hit. As a result, he’s driving more balls, with 20

hits in his last 13 games, including seven in the four-game series against Tampa Bay.

“Look, we talk a lot about Mike Trout, and we should,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But Simmons, for

this series, it seemed like he beat us up just as much and got big hit after big hit."

The Angels often are hitting Simmons fifth. The cleanup hitter Thursday afternoon, Simmons said he still

has not felt exactly right, as he did when he hit .400 through the season’s first week.

“I don’t feel the same thing I was feeling before when I was going good,” Simmons said. “It comes and

goes sometimes. I’m feeling good right now, seeing the ball good, and executing my plan better than I

was at parts of the season. You gotta figure out a way to get out of it.”

Simmons missed more than five weeks at this time last season after he suffered a torn thumb ligament

against these same Rays. Helped by a medical innovation that allowed him to begin his rehab two days

after surgery, he beat the prognosis by several weeks.

One year removed from the recovery, he said the thumb does not bother him “99%” of the time.

Short hops

Albert Pujols received Thursday off. He has rested for seven of the club’s 50 games this season. …

Recovering relievers Huston Street (lat) and Mike Morin (neck) each pitched scoreless innings in their

rehab assignment debuts Wednesday with triple-A Salt Lake, and fellow injured reliever Cam Bedrosian

(groin) is nearing his first time facing hitters at the club’s spring-training facility in Arizona. … The Angels

will play at Marlins Park in Miami for the first time this weekend.

FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Angels go quietly in 4-0 loss to Rays

By Jeff Fletcher

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Angels started Thursday’s game without their cleanup hitter, and by the end

of it they were also without their leadoff hitter.

They hope both will back by Friday.

With Albert Pujols getting the day off and sizzling leadoff hitter Cameron Maybin leaving the game because

of a sore right knee, the Angels slogged through a 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

May 26, 2017 Page 6 of 23

Pujols, a 37-year-old just a few days removed from a hamstring injury, got a break leading into an

interleague series in which the Angels hope to play him at first base.

They didn’t plan on Maybin coming out of the game, though. Maybin, who has been one of the team’s

offensive catalysts ever since he moved to the leadoff spot last week, said his right knee began aching from

playing the series on the artificial turf at Tropicana Field.

Maybin said he’s hoping to play Friday, when the Angels open a series at Marlins Park. He said he was

feeling better by the end of Thursday’s game, and he probably could have stayed in.

But the Angels had already paid a price for him playing at less than full speed.

Colby Rasmus belted a two-run double in the fifth, turning a two-run lead into a four-run lead. The ball was

hit 390 feet, into the gap in left-center, but it hung up high enough that Maybin felt he could have caught

it.

“I thought if my knee felt better, I could have run that ball down,” Maybin said.

It is likely that Mike Trout would have caught it, but Trout was the designated hitter. With the spot vacated

by Pujols, Manager Mike Scioscia took advantage of the opportunity to get Trout off the turf.

The Angels lineup was further short-handed because catcher Martin Maldonado was off for a day game

after a night game. Also, struggling second baseman Danny Espinosa got a start.

As a result, the Angels didn’t do much with Tampa Bay right-hander Matt Andriese. Their best chance to

score in his eight innings was in the first, when Trout was thrown out at the plate on a perfect peg from

right fielder Steven Souza.

“To get Mike he’s got to put that throw on the money, and he did,” Scioscia said. “It was a nice play.”

That was the Angels’ only hit in 13 at-bats with a runner in scoring position. They also wasted leadoff

doubles in the third and fourth.

The Angels’ failure to produce offensively left zero margin for error for the defense and pitching, and third

baseman Luis Valbuena and spot starter Daniel Wright combined to put the team in a hole in the first

inning.

Valbuena made an error on the first play of the inning. With two outs, Wright allowed a two-run single to

Rasmus. After that, Wright settled down and did not allow another run until the fifth.

“I thought Daniel was good,” Scioscia said. “A couple situations got away from him. He got behind Rasmus

2-0 and had to come in with the bases loaded. He did what we expected. A pitch here or there, and we

make that (Valbuena) play, and he might be pitching in the sixth inning and he has a little cleaner

linescore.”

Wright was charged with all four runs, the last two scoring on Rasmus’ double while Keynan Middleton

was in the game.

May 26, 2017 Page 7 of 23

Wright is likely to get another shot Tuesday, as he takes one more turn filling in for injured Alex Meyer.

After that, the Angels are hoping to have Meyer back.

Through three starts this season, Wright has been very good once, very bad once, and the latest outing

somewhere in between.

“It definitely feels more comfortable,” he said. “The game is slowing down a little more for me, which is a

good thing. I’m kind of taking it one pitch at a time instead of letting it speed up on me.”

Angels Notes: Cam Bedrosian among a group of quickly healing relievers

By Jeff Fletcher

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Angels are getting closer to having some difficult decisions with their bullpen.

A night after Huston Street and Mike Morin pitched one perfect inning apiece, opening their rehab

assignments at Triple-A, Manager Mike Scioscia said Cam Bedrosian is scheduled to face some hitters in

the next couple of days at extended spring training in Arizona.

“He still has a little work to do, but he’s made some huge jumps in the last 10 days,” Scioscia said Thursday

morning. “You knew it was going to happen sometime. Maybe it took a little longer, but he feels good.”

Bedrosian, who was out with a strained groin, figures to be on a rehab assignment within a week or 10

days. Street, who had a strained lat, is not eligible to be activated until Wednesday. Morin, who had a

strained neck, could be ready sooner.

Morin has options, so there’s no guarantee that he will even be added to the big league bullpen when he’s

ready.

Bedrosian and Street, however, will need to be added to the major league roster when they are ready. The

only Angels relievers who have options are Keynan Middleton and Jose Alvarez, and Alvarez isn’t going

anywhere because he’s been effective and he’s the only lefty.

How the Angels use Bedrosian and Street also remains to be seen. Bud Norris has performed well as the

closer since Bedrosian has been out.

“We hope (to have tough decisions),” Scioscia said. “When you have tough decisions, whether it’s the

lineup or who is on your roster, or what roles they are in, that’s definitely a positive reflection on the depth

of your team.”

PLAN FOR PUJOLS

Albert Pujols got the day off Thursday, but Scioscia said he’s been doing well since coming back from a

hamstring injury that cost him three games last weekend.

“On a couple ground balls, you’ve seen him run with a better stride than he had a week ago before we

shut him down,” Scioscia said. “Maybe not quite as clean as he was early in the year when he had a really

May 26, 2017 Page 8 of 23

nice stride. He feels he’s coming along. He feels like he can do the things he needs to do. Most important is

where he is in the batter’s box.”

This weekend, however, at Marlins Park, Pujols will need to do more than just hit. Without the designated

hitter available, the Angels will go day by day to determine whether Pujols feels well enough to play first

base.

“We’re going to wait and see where he is,” Scioscia said.

ALSO

Yunel Escobar has begun running, and is expected to run the bases this weekend, Scioscia said. Escobar

(strained hamstring) is expected to be out another two or three weeks. …

Slumping Danny Espinosa was in the starting lineup at second base Thursday. He has started every other

game over the past week. The Angels would prefer to limit his starts to games against lefties while he’s

slumping, but they are in a string of facing very few lefties. Scioscia said Espinosa is “working very hard on

a number of things. Hopefully, he can find a little better feel up there.” …

Friday’s Angels game will be the second ever broadcast live on Facebook, part of a new MLB initiative. The

game can be accessed at facebook.com/mlb. …

The Angels will take some extra time before Friday’s game for their players to get used to Marlins Park, a

park in which many of their players have never been. It is particularly important for outfielders to get to

know how to play balls off the wall and in the corners.

The Angels are the only team that has never played at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012. The Angels last

played in Miami in 2011.

FROM ANGELS.COM

Returning relievers create 'pen logjam

By Maria Guardado / MLB.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- As a trio of their relievers move closer to coming off the disabled list, the Angels

could soon face tough roster decisions regarding the composition of their bullpen.

Huston Street and Mike Morin each tossed one scoreless inning in the first game of their rehab

assignments with Triple-A Salt Lake on Wednesday, and manager Mike Scioscia said Cam Bedrosian is

slated to face hitters in Arizona this week.

Bedrosian's progress is particularly encouraging for the Angels. The 25-year-old right-hander did not

allow a run in 6 2/3 innings to start the season, but he landed on the disabled list on April 22 with a groin

strain, and his recovery took longer than expected.

May 26, 2017 Page 9 of 23

"He's made some huge jumps here in the last 10 days," Scioscia said Thursday. "You knew it was going to

happen sometime. Maybe it took a little bit longer, but it's there. He feels good."

The injuries to Street, Bedrosian, Morin and Andrew Bailey significantly depleted the Halos' bullpen

depth, prompting them to acquire David Hernandez from the Braves on April 24 and forcing Bud

Norris into the closer's role. But the Angels' patchwork bullpen has performed well despite the injuries,

and the club won't have room for everyone once its ailing relievers are healthy.

Morin is the closest to returning, but he has options and is not a lock to return to the Angels when his

rehab assignment ends. Keynan Middleton and Jose Alvarez are the only other relievers with options,

though Alvarez is the club's only left-hander, so he is almost certainly guaranteed a spot in the bullpen.

It's also unclear if the Halos will retain Norris as their closer when Street and Bedrosian return. Street,

who is on the 60-day disabled list, is not eligible to be activated until June 1.

"When those decisions become tough, that is a definitely a positive reflection on the depth of your

team," Scioscia said.

Worth noting

• Albert Pujols received a day off Thursday, with Mike Trout serving as the designated hitter in his place.

Scioscia said it remains to be seen how much first base Pujols will play when the Angels head to Miami

for their three-game series against the Marlins at Marlins Park.

• Yunel Escobar (left hamstring strain) has begun running and is on track to run the bases this weekend,

according to Scioscia.

Angels shut out in series finale

By Bill Chastain and Maria Guardado / MLB.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- Matt Andriese won his fourth consecutive decision and Colby Rasmus provided the

offense as the Rays defeated the Angels, 4-0, on Thursday afternoon at Tropicana Field.

By winning, the Rays (25-25) earned a split of their four-game series with the Angels (25-25).

Andriese continued his mastery over the Angels, allowing no runs on six hits in eight innings to move to

5-1 on the season. He is now 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in three appearances (two starts) against the Angels.

"Andriese was outstanding," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "There was one inning where he kind of

battled for the feel for what he was trying to accomplish out there, but other than that he settled down

and made pretty quick work with efficient innings."

Rasmus had four RBIs on the afternoon, singling home two against Daniel Wright in the bottom of the

first then adding two more RBIs in the fifth with a bases-loaded double off Keynan Middleton that

scored two to push the Rays' lead to 4-0.

May 26, 2017 Page 10 of 23

Wright, who was making a spot start in place of the injured Alex Meyer, allowed four runs (two earned)

in 4 1/3 innings to take the loss and move to 0-1 on the season.

"I felt good," Wright said. "Everything felt like it was coming out of my hand well. I got in some pretty

good counts, especially in the middle of the outing there. First inning, they got a couple of hits. [Evan

Longoria] got one off the end of the bat that fell in, so I kind of had to scramble and hold them to two in

the first. Then I kind of got in trouble in the fifth, and they decided to take me out."

Angels outfielder Cameron Maybin, starting in center field, exited the game in the sixth inning with right

knee soreness. He said afterward that the move was precautionary, and he hopes to return Friday.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

Rasmus Raking: The Rays held a 2-0 lead entering the bottom of the fifth when Corey Dickerson doubled

to lead off the inning. One out later, Longoria walked and Steven Souza Jr. drew a two-out walk to load

the bases for Rasmus. The veteran hitter worked the count to 2-1 against Middleton before slapping the

ball to center field. Looking spry, Rasmus easily made it to third base standing up. He didn't get a triple,

because the ball bounced over the wall before coming back onto the field. But the two-run double came

at just the right time as it expanded the Rays' lead to 4-0. More >

Souza's Best: In the first inning, Mike Trout tried to score from second base when Andrelton

Simmons singled to right. Right fielder Souza fielded the ball quickly and made a throw home. The throw

beat Trout by several steps and catcher Jesus Sucre made the tag for the third out. According

to Statcast™, Souza's throw to the plate was clocked at 97 mph, his hardest-ever tracked throw. Souza's

assist made for a three-run turnaround in the first since Rasmus singled home two in the bottom half of

the inning to put the Rays up 2-0.

"He was pinching shallow," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Souza. "To get Mike, he's got to put

that throw on the money, and he did. Nice play. Nice throw from him."

The Halos struggled with situational hitting after that, finishing 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position

and closing out the series without scoring a run in their last 17 innings.

QUOTABLE

"Souza bailed me out with a nice throw in the first inning and all day our defense made some great

plays." -- Andriese on Thursday's outing

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS

In the four-game series, the Rays went 18 consecutive innings without scoring a run, then held the

Angels for 17 consecutive innings without scoring a run.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

In the seventh inning, Kevin Kiermaier attempted to steal second and was ruled safe by second-base

umpire Joe West after sliding in just ahead of Juan Graterol's throw to Danny Espinosa. The Angels

challenged the call, but the ruling on the field stood following a replay review.

May 26, 2017 Page 11 of 23

WHAT'S NEXT

Angels: The Angels will make their first ever trip to Marlins Park on Friday when they kick off a three-

game series against the Marlins at 4:10 p.m. PT. Right-hander Jesse Chavez (4-5, 4.61 ERA) will take the

mound for the Halos in his 10th start of the season.

Rays: Chris Archer (3-3, 3.76) will get the nod Friday when the Rays begin a three-game set at Minnesota

in an 8:10 p.m. ET contest. The right-hander struck out a season-high 12 Sunday against the Yankees.

Maybin exits game with sore right knee

By Maria Guardado / MLB.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- Angels outfielder Cameron Maybin departed Thursday's 4-0 loss to the Rays in the

sixth inning with right knee soreness, though he called the removal precautionary and said he hopes to

return to action on Friday.

Maybin started in center field in place of Mike Trout and played five innings in the field before

complaining of soreness, which he attributed to the turf at Tropicana Field.

"It feels OK, just a little sore from running around in this turf the last few days," Maybin said. "Just kind

of achy this morning. Got some treatment, felt better in the game. Just wasn't quite used to running

around. A lot of running this series. Just staying on top of it, but it feels fine. I could have finished the

game. I just wasn't quite running like I usually do."

In the bottom of the fifth, Colby Rasmus lined a ball to left-center field that had a catch probability of 60

percent, but Maybin could not track it down, allowing it to fall for a two-run double, which extended

Tampa Bay's lead to 4-0.

"I thought if my knee felt better I could have run that ball down," Maybin said.

Maybin did not come out for the bottom of the sixth, as the Angels decided to have him ice his ailing

knee and receive treatment. Left fielder Ben Revere took over in center field, with Jefry Marte shifting

from first base to left.

Manager Mike Sciosica said he does not expect Maybin to miss any more time with the malady.

"We'll evaluate him tomorrow, but I think it's calmed down," Scioscia said. "Hopefully he'll be ready to

go."

The injury scare comes amid an impressive hot streak for Maybin, who is batting .429 (15-for-35) with

10 runs, five doubles, two home runs and five RBIs in eight games since moving into the leadoff spot for

the Angels. He's optimistic that he'll be ready to play on Friday, when the Angels open a three-game

series against the Marlins in Miami. Maybin has batted .314 with 10 RBIs in 11 games at Marlins Park.

"It definitely helps that I like playing in Miami," Maybin said. "I play well in Miami. I guess I play well in

South Florida."

May 26, 2017 Page 12 of 23

Trout takes Miami: Watch free on Facebook

By Joe Frisaro and Maria Guardado / MLB.com

Marlins Park, now in its sixth season, has played host to every big league team -- except one. But on

Friday, you can check the Angels off the list.

For the first time since the Marlins' retractable-roof home opened in 2012, the Angels are in Miami,

which means South Florida fans will get to see MLB's best player -- Mike Trout -- in person. The game

will be broadcast live on the official MLB Facebook page (www.facebook.com/mlb), and include an

exclusive MLB.com pregame show.

Not surprisingly, Trout is having another MVP-caliber season, which presents problems for the Marlins.

There isn't a lot of history between the Marlins and Trout, but Friday's Miami starter is familiar with the

perennial Angels All-Star outfielder.

Dan Straily pitched for the A's from 2012-14, and he's faced Trout before, without a lot of success. Off

Straily, Trout is 9-for-19 (.474) with two doubles, one home run and four RBIs.

Straily, however, is enjoying a strong season with the Marlins, boasting a 1.03 WHIP, and opponents are

hitting .164 off him. Against his slider, per Statcast, the opposition is hitting .171. He has induced 116

swinging strikes on the pitch.

The Angels are going with right-hander Jesse Chavez, who is 4-5 with a 4.61 ERA.

Chavez and Straily are among six pitchers tied for the MLB lead this season in home runs allowed while

ahead in the count (five). However, Chavez has given up six homers in other counts, compared with one

for Straily.

Three things you need to know about this game

• Trout has faced the Marlins just three games in his career, in 2014 at home. Still, he did damage, going

5-for-11 (.455) with one home run and three RBIs.

• Miami first baseman Justin Bour hasn't just been the club's top home-run threat the past three weeks -

- he's also hitting the ball (on average) harder than the rest of the club. At home since the April 28

homestand, Bour paces Miami with five home runs. Also at Marlins Park in that span, his average exit

velocity is 94.2 mph. In the first three weeks of the season at home, his exit velo average was 92.5 mph,

according to Statcast.

• The Marlins have seen plenty of Albert Pujols, back when he was in his prime with the Cardinals. They

don't need to be reminded just how impactful Pujols has been against them. Here's what he's done in 71

career games: .308/.398/.585 with 15 home runs and 42 RBIs. The Angels will be without a designated

hitter during the Interleague series, however, and manager Mike Scioscia said it remains to be seen how

many games Pujols will be available to play first base. The 37-year-old slugger has only two appearances

at first this season.

May 26, 2017 Page 13 of 23

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Andriese, Rasmus help Rays beat Angels 4-0

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Matt Andriese is pitching far better than most fifth starters.

Andriese allowed six hits over eight innings, Colby Rasmus drove in four runs and the Rays salvaged a

split of a four-game series with Los Angeles by beating the Angels 4-0 on Thursday.

"He's got plenty of stuff to be a middle, top-of-the-rotation starter," Tampa Bay manager Kevin

Cash said. "That's exactly how he's pitching this year."

Andriese (5-1) improved to 4-0 over his last five starts, holding the Angels to 1 for 11 with runners in

scoring position. Los Angeles threatened in five innings against the right-hander.

"Early on, I was kind of feeling for it a little bit," Andriese said. "It was one of those games I just battled

through."

Rasmus had a pair of key two-out hits with the bases loaded: a two-run single in the first and a fifth-

inning double that made it 4-0.

"Good to see him swinging the bat well," Cash said.

Rasmus, who missed the first 27 games of the season following hip surgery, had been 6 for 36 with 20

strikeouts over his previous 10 games.

Tommy Hunter got three outs to complete a six-hitter.

Daniel Wright (0-1), recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake to fill in for the injured Alex Meyer, allowed four

runs -- two earned -- and six hits in 4 1/3 innings for the Angels, who had won the first two games of the

series. Los Angeles finished 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

Meyer, placed on the 10-day disabled list Wednesday with back spasms, could return next week.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia won't commit to Wright making another start.

"We're going to evaluate it," Scioscia said. "We'll see where it is in a couple days and go from there."

Mike Trout doubled in the first but was thrown out by right fielder Steven Souza Jr. on Andrelton

Simmons' two-out single.

"To get Mike, he's got to put that throw on the money and he did," Scioscia said.

Trout went 1 for 4 as the designated hitter and was 4 for 14 in the series with three doubles and a home

run. The 2016 AL MVP has reached base in 42 of his 44 games this season.

May 26, 2017 Page 14 of 23

Cameron Maybin, who started in center field, left after five innings with right knee soreness. He might

play Friday.

PUJOLS POINTS

Angels DH Albert Pujols, who played the first three games of the series after missing three games with

right hamstring soreness, was rested. Scioscia said a decision will be made daily on whether Pujols starts

at first base during the three-game interleague series at Miami.

OFFENSIVE WOES

The Angels have been shut out four times, and were held scoreless over the last 17 innings of the just-

completed series.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Angels: SS Yunel Escobar (strained left hamstring) could run the bases this weekend. ... RHP Cam

Bedrosian (strained right groin) is ready to throw batting practice.

Rays: Hunter (strained right calf) was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list and RHP Jumbo Diaz (right

arm fatigue) went on the 10-day DL. ... RHP Brad Boxberger (right flexor strain) is to throw batting

practice Monday.

UP NEXT

Angels: RHP Jesse Chavez (4-5) and Miami RHP Dan Straily (2-3) are Friday's starters.

Rays: RHP Chris Archer (3-3) goes against Minnesota LHP Hector Santiago (4-2) on Friday night.

Trout, Angels make first trip to Marlins Park

Associated Press

MIAMI -- Friday will mark the Marlins Park debut of Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout, the 25-

year-old center fielder who already is a five-time All-Star and a two-time American League MVP.

The Angels also have another attraction in Albert Pujols, who can make history this weekend against

the Miami Marlins. He needs three home runs to become the ninth major-leaguer to reach 600.

"It seems like every day (Pujols) is breaking records," Trout told the Los Angeles Times. "It seems like

every day he is passing somebody on some list."

Pujols, who is often used as a designated hitter in American League ballparks, could see action at first

base this weekend in order to keep his bat in the lineup as the Angels (25-25) seek to snap a two-game

losing skid and get back over .500.

May 26, 2017 Page 15 of 23

The Marlins (16-29) are off to one of the worst starts in baseball and are limping home with two more

injuries during their just-concluded 2-4 trip.

Already missing third baseman Martin Prado, shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria and standout utility

player Miguel Rojas, the Marlins played on Wednesday without star center fielder Christian Yelich, who

has a hip injury.

In addition, Derek Dietrich, who is filling in for Prado at third base, left Wednesday's game because of a

hip/groin injury.

The Marlins' problems don't end there. Their original starting rotation has a 7-16 record, including

Edinson Volquez, who is 0-7 after signing a two-year, $22-million contract in the offseason.

"When I signed here, I was hoping to be better than what I am right now," Volquez told the media.

The best Marlins starter has been right-hander Dan Straily (2-3, 3.70 ERA), who will start on Friday

against the Angels.

Miami is 4-5 when Straily pitches, which is pretty good considering the Marlins are 13 games under .500.

Straily has allowed only 28 hits in 48.2 innings this season. He has held eight straight opponents to four

hits or fewer, and he leads Marlins starters in ERA and WHIP (1.03).

Right-handed batters are hitting only .156 against Straily, with five homers in 90 at-bats. Lefty batters

are hitting .173 with one homer in 81 at-bats.

Straily, 28, had a breakthrough year last season when he went 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA. This year, even

though his record is unimpressive, his ERA is on pace to be a career low.

Marlins Park has been kind to Straily, who has a 1.95 ERA at home and a 6.00 mark on the road.

Meanwhile, the Angels, who will start Jesse Chavez (4-5, 4.61 ERA), in their first-ever trip to Marlins

Park.

Chavez, 33, has a career record of 30-45 with a 4.55 ERA. He lost five of six decisions this year before

turning it around recently, winning his last two starts.

The Angels have been treading water while waiting for closer Huston Street (right lat strain) to return

from injury. He and Matt Morin (neck tightness) pitched one perfect inning each on Wednesday in

Triple-A minor-league rehab stints.

Los Angeles is hoping to get starting pitcher Alex Meyer (back stiffness) on the mound next week.

The Angels are already without two starting pitchers: Garrett Richards, whose biceps injury is expected

to keep him out until August, and Tyler Skaggs (oblique), who is out until the All-Star break.

Los Angeles hopes to get third baseman Yunel Escobar (left hamstring) back soon. He is reportedly ready

to run bases.

May 26, 2017 Page 16 of 23

However, Angels outfielder Cameron Maybin left Thursday's game because of soreness in his right knee.

FROM ESPN.COM

Which players are doing the most to carry their teams?

By Jeff Sullivan / Special to ESPN.com

Go ahead, think about the Los Angeles Angels, and imagine how you would explain the team in a

sentence or two. Yet, for the Angels, even a sentence could be too long. You could default to two

words: Mike Trout.

Trout has been the best player on the team nearly from the moment he arrived, because he has been

the best player in baseball in that same time. It's not that the Angels don't have anyone else; it's that

since Trout's first full season in 2012, the impression has been the Angels haven't had enough talent to

support him. The Angels have felt like a one-man ballclub.

That's not an unfair conclusion, because the distribution of the Angels' production has been lopsided in

the Trout era. This year, though, the Angels aren't alone. Some other teams are similarly dependent on

one player to shoulder most of the load.

I'll use wins above replacement (WAR), because it's a number that's easy to understand. There's team

WAR and there's player WAR, and using the numbers at FanGraphs, I calculated everyone's team WAR,

and then I calculated how much of that is from each team's best player.

Here is the result of that math:

The median is 19 percent. The mean is 22 percent. The average team has gotten about one-fifth of its

WAR from its best player. The numbers confirm our feelings about the Angels, who are over toward the

left at 36 percent. Nearly two-fifths of their WAR has come from Trout. You also have the Padres in front

of them, thanks to the surprising Trevor Cahill. And in first are the Braves, who can thank the currently

injured Freddie Freeman for 43 percent of their total value. Before getting hurt, Freeman was hitting like

an MVP, which is good. But that hurt part -- not so good. Based on how much value Freeman brought to

the team, the injury is very bad.

I mentioned the "surprising Padres" because they don't project as one of those teams that would end up

on the left side of the plot. But this comes down to being a function of the math. The Padres just don't

generate very much WAR as a team, so it doesn't take a very high WAR to end up responsible for a big

chunk of it.

In 2003, Dmitri Young was responsible for 112 percent of the Tigers' WAR, because he was worth 1.9

wins, while the rest of the roster was worth minus-0.2 combined.

May 26, 2017 Page 17 of 23

In 2013, Jason Castro was responsible for 147 percent of the Astros' WAR because of the same

phenomenon. The worse a team gets, the weirder things get.

I decided to narrow the historical window to teams that finished at least .500, from between 2002 and

2016. These are teams that remained relevant, and I went back to 2002 because that's the earliest limit

of our more credible WAR metric. It's a sample of 237 team-seasons, and the most lopsided rosters

show up at 31 percent: Carlos Beltran was worth 31 percent of the 2003 Royals' WAR, Jose Bautista was

worth 31 percent of the 2011 Blue Jays' WAR, and Trout was worth 31 percent of the 2015 Angels' WAR.

Now, let's return to 2017. The Angels are around .500, with Trout at 36 percent. The Pirates are kind of

around .500, with Ivan Nova at 32 percent. The Twins are above .500, with Miguel Sano at 31 percent.

You could make the argument that these teams are one-player-production-heavy even while hanging

around .500. I'm not sure whether these squads will stay that way, but with the Angels, at least, we have

an inkling that it will.

Then, there's another thing to do. The analysis above examined how much of a team's WAR comes from

one player. Yet that analysis says next to nothing about the separation between a team's best player

and its second-best. Let's round out the picture.

Hey, look, it's the Angels! At this writing, there's a 2.1-win difference between Trout and Andrelton

Simmons. Simmons is a pretty good shortstop, all things considered, but he does most of his best work

with his glove and not his bat. As a team, the Angels are 14th in WAR. If you compare every roster, and

after subtracting each team's best player, then the Angels drop to 19th. Instead of being right behind

the Rockies, they end up right behind the Mariners.

Following the Angels, we find the Twins again. There's presently a 1.6-win difference between Sano

and Robbie Grossman. Something tells me most of you wouldn't have assumed Grossman has been the

Twins' No. 2 player. Something tells me most of you wouldn't have assumed Grossman has been on the

Twins in the first place. They go from 15th in overall team WAR to 20th after subtracting the top players.

The Twins have been a lot like the Angels, and Sano's hitting so far has been positively Trout-ian.

After the Twins, there are the Braves. There's a 1.4-win difference between Freeman and Matt Kemp.

Once again, I'll remind you, Freeman is injured and he'll be out for a while, and Matt Adams is no

Freddie Freeman.

To round out the top four, we've got the Red Sox, for which there's a 1.2-win difference between Chris

Sale and Mookie Betts. Unlike the other teams, I wouldn't yet suggest the Red Sox have a true depth

problem, but Sale has been extraordinary. For the Red Sox, this could be interpreted as more of a good

thing than bad.

The opposite of a lopsided team might be the Astros. There has been no real difference between their

top two players -- Jose Altuve (1.3 WAR) and Carlos Correa (1.2 WAR) -- and they also have the smallest

WAR share coming from the top player. There was a sense before the season the Astros would thrive

because of their balance, and through the first month and a half, their balance is evident.

May 26, 2017 Page 18 of 23

The Astros' balance has translated to an MLB-best 31 wins through Tuesday's games, whereas the top-

heavy clubs include the Angels, the Braves and the Twins. Two of those teams -- the Twins, who lead the

AL Central at 25-18, and the Angels, who are 25-24 -- hope to stay relevant, while the Braves merely

hope to stay afloat. It's easy to see how the Freeman injury is devastating, and a Trout or Sano injury

would be similarly destructive to their respective teams. But as long as that doesn't happen, the Twins

and Angels could be powered by their singular stars. And in the Twins' case, Sano could now be

supported by the recently recalled Jose Berrios, to say nothing of Byron Buxton's potential to become a

star at any moment. The Twins might not have to lean on Sano so heavily for the remainder of the

season, which would be fantastic for their competitive chances.

No team wants to lean too much on one player. Doing so makes it challenging to win. As a few teams

have demonstrated, it's not an impossibility. This is another way Trout and the Angels hope to be

exceptional. The Twins, for their part, hope for better balance. Seeing as Sano isn't quite on Trout's

level, they're likely to need that balance to remain in the hunt.

Is it time for teams to treat Mike Trout like Barry Bonds?

By Sam Miller / ESPN.com

When Mets manager Terry Collins acknowledged this weekend that he had considered walking Mike

Trout with the bases loaded, it revived a phrase we don't hear much anymore: the Bonds Treatment.

That's what it's called when teams are so afraid of a hitter they continually walk him intentionally even

in the most outlandish situations, like leading off an inning or with the bases loaded. It's called it the

Bonds Treatment because that's how the league treated Barry Bonds, but also because it's how the

league treated nobody else before or since. It was less an evolution in baseball strategy than a public

panic, a mania that gripped 29 teams' managers for about five years and then receded when Bonds

went away.

Intentional walks had been dropping leaguewide when the Bonds Treatment showed up, and they've

continued dropping since, and there has never been anything close to a sustained Bonds Treatment

since. No matter how good Albert Pujols or Miguel Cabrera or Bryce Harper got, they never got the

Bonds Treatment. Harper's 20 intentional walks last season marked his career high. Bonds had that

many in a 15-game stretch during the 2004 season. The Bonds Treatment was less about baseball than it

was about Bonds.

But now here's Mike Trout, and here's Terry Collins, so here's a suddenly relevant question: Does Trout

actually deserve the Bonds Treatment?

There's a case for and a case against. One of those cases is almost certainly wrong.

The case for

Here's the case for treating Mike Trout like Barry Bonds: He's hitting like Barry Bonds.

May 26, 2017 Page 19 of 23

After doubling twice on Wednesday night, Trout is hitting .347 this season, with a .347/.466/.760 slash

line and the fourth-highest OPS+ since World War II. The careful reader and Bonds Fun Fact aficionado

will note that Trout's 1.266 OPS, while fantastic, is a full 102 points lower than Bonds' OPS from 2001 to

2004. (Peak Bonds was responsible for the top three OPS+ seasons in baseball history -- beating Trout by

comfortable margins.) But the difference is mostly in OBP -- a result of the walks. Bonds hit .349 in that

period, and slugged .809. Baseball Reference has a neutralizer tool that adjusts for the offensive

environment of the player's era and ballpark. It converts Bonds' 2001-2004 stats to a "neutralized" .342

average and .793 slugging percentage. Trout's neutralized numbers are .352 and .762. Give him Bonds'

walks -- give him the Bonds Treatment -- and he's almost there.

OK, not all the way there, but here's the other part of the case: The guys hitting behind Trout are even

worse than the guys who (often) hit behind Bonds. Trout has mostly batted third this year for the

Angels. Entering Thursday, the Angels' cleanup hitters are slashing .202/.269/.337, the majors' worst

OPS for that spot in the lineup. The Angels' No. 5 hitters are at .217/.309/.311, the worst in the

American League, and their No. 6 hitters are batting .191/.265/.279, worst in the majors.

There's a stat called weighted on base average, or wOBA, that takes the value of every offensive act,

assigns a run value to it, and calculates a hitter's entire offensive output into one number. Trout's wOBA

this year is .487. The Angels' No. 4, 5, 6 and 7 hitters have combined to produce wOBAs of .263, .276,

.242 and .272. Those are roughly the career wOBAs of, respectively, Jose Molina, Chad Moeller, Jeff

Mathis and Paul Bako. Trout is hitting like Ted Williams, and he's being protected by four backup

catchers.

So what we have here is a player whose wOBA is 80 percent higher than the guy after him, 75 percent

higher than the guy after that, and 95 percent higher than the guy after that. Those numbers might not

mean anything to you -- except for a general "wow" -- but they can help answer the question at hand.

In "The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball," sabermetricians Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman and

Andrew Dolphin use wOBA to calculate when it makes sense to intentionally walk a star hitter to face

the guy after him. For most star hitters, the answer is almost never. For the truly elite hitters with

merely average hitters behind them, there are some occasional cases when it makes sense. And for a

hitter of Bonds' ability -- a class that has heretofore included only Bonds -- there are quite a few smart

IBBs. Tango even made a Walk Bonds table, which lists each game state and rules on whether a manager

should ("Walk Now!") or shouldn't ("Do NOT Walk!") put Bonds on.

If you believe Trout is truly a .484 wOBA hitter right now, and if you believe that the lineup protection

behind him is truly this bad, then Trout merits nearly as many walks as Bonds did. Using the book's

tables and these assumptions, Trout should be walked frequently when there are runners in scoring

position, one or two outs, and the walk wouldn't advance any runners. Fall behind him in the count, and

it becomes almost a moral mandate.

But this case is almost certainly wrong.

May 26, 2017 Page 20 of 23

The case against

In June 2014, Trout had what was to that point probably the best month of his career. He hit

.361/.471/.759, capping it off with a 489-foot home run. He followed it up with a .265/.341/.504 July

that was, at the time, the second-worst month of his career. The same basic thing happened a year

later: A career-best .367/.462/.861 in July, then a career-worst .218/.352/.337 in August.

Which is just to say that, if you were betting on Trout's next month, next week, or next plate

appearance, you'd be tempted to believe he has reached some new level, but you'd probably be wrong.

He has been at this level before, and like all hot streaks, it was temporary.

The same is almost certainly true, in reverse, for Pujols, whose .674 OPS this year is almost 100 points

lower than his career worst. The same is probably true of Luis Valbuena and Kole Calhoun and C.J.

Cron and Jefry Marte, who have collectively done an uncharacteristically bad job behind Trout.

The projection system ZiPS tells us what we should expect from all of these players. A projection system

is not a crystal ball, of course, but it takes years of performances into account instead of a month or two.

Trout, ZiPS says, should have a .419 wOBA going forward, which would be the second-best season of his

career, but would rank just 15th for Bonds. His lineup protection should be a bunch of league-average

hitters, with wOBAs around .315 or .320. Instead of being almost twice as good as the guys behind him,

Trout should be around 30 percent better.

That's good enough to justify plenty of intentional walks, according to the tables in "The Book." If

runners are on second and third with two outs, go ahead and walk Trout. But the Bonds Treatment

requires a farcical imbalance of talent, because the Bonds Treatment is itself a farce. Trout and his

teammates have approached that imbalance this year, but they're unlikely to remain there.

This case is probably right. But there's also a third possibility: that the statistical case itself is too

conservative.

Say you were an alien who came to Earth and discovered the rules of baseball. Paper-clipped to those

rules was Tom Tango's résumé and the "When To Intentionally Walk" tables. You'd have no reason to

question those tables; you'd have no evidence or knowledge to contradict them. But we do have other

relevant evidence: the collective actions of experts in the field. Big league managers clearly believed the

Walk Bonds table was too conservative, because they continually walked Bonds in Do NOT Walk

situations. For instance, Tango's chart finds almost no instance in which it was wise to walk Bonds with a

runner on first and fewer than two outs, yet managers did so 23 times, including six in 2004 alone.

You can take one of two things from that fact. Either the Bonds Treatment was always stupid, managers

were actively harming their chances to win, and to justify giving Trout the Bonds Treatment, he would

have to be even better than Bonds was. Or managers were smart, factored in more variables than could

be built into a single decision-making table, and the actual case for walking Bonds was stronger than the

statistical case was. The actual case for walking Trout might also be stronger than the statistical case for

walking Trout.

May 26, 2017 Page 21 of 23

I'm skeptical, but if a major league manager actually considered walking Trout with the bases loaded

and nobody out -- a clear and convincing Do NOT Walk situation if there ever was one -- we might see it

tested.

FROM SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Somehow, the remarkable Mike Trout is only getting better as he builds a historic season

By Jon Tayler

QUICKLY

Mike Trout has long since established himself as the game's best player, but the Angels' 25-year-old

star may be en route to a season not seen in baseball in half a century.

As Angels centerfielder Mike Trout walked to the plate at Citi Field last Saturday night in the ninth inning

with the bases loaded, no one out and his team trailing the Mets by three runs, a thought crossed New

York manager Terry Collins’s mind for a brief but serious moment. He could have closer Addison Reed,

who’d already given up a walk and an RBI single to the first two batters he’d faced, attempt the most

difficult task you could ask of a pitcher in 2017: retire the best hitter in the entire world with no margin

for error. Or, Collins mused, he could opt out of that unappealing scenario entirely by doing something

that has happened in a game just twice in the past 72 years: order an intentional walk with the bases

loaded.

“The first thought is, I’d almost rather walk this guy than give him a pitch to hit,” Collins said after the

game. “Those are the kind of situations where you look back at the time when Buck Showalter walked

[Barry] Bonds with the bases loaded [in 1998] rather than pitch to him. It was the same feeling.”

This is the rarefied air in which Trout now resides—alongside Bonds, whose strike zone mastery and

prodigious power had few equals in baseball history, and Josh Hamilton, who was en route to an AL-high

130 RBIs when he got the same treatment from then-Rays manager Joe Maddon in 2008. And although

Collins ultimately chose to pitch to Trout (he flew out to rightfield to drive in a run in New York's 7–5

win), his dilemma reflects a fascinating question that the rest of the league has to confront: Has the best

player in baseball somehow gotten even better?

“I played with [Josh] Donaldson in his MVP year [in 2015] and [Paul] Goldschmidt when he should have

won an MVP [in '13], and those were pretty special, but this is a different level,” says Angels infielder

Cliff Pennington. “I’m just glad he’s on my team.”

The numbers have always been on Trout’s side, but they are patently ludicrous in 2017. Through 43

games, the 25-year-old reigning AL MVP is hitting an astonishing .347/.466/.760, and his 15 home

runs are tied with Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the most in the majors. Trout leads the AL in

batting average and total bases and is first in all of baseball in on-base percentage, slugging

May 26, 2017 Page 22 of 23

percentage, OPS and OPS+ (233). He's also third in the AL in RBIs, just two behind co-leaders Miguel

Sano of the Twins and Nelson Cruz of the Mariners. All of which means that Trout has a chance to

join Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, who did so in 1967, as the only players since 1948 to win the

traditional Triple Crown and the slash-stat triple crown in the same season.

Not surprisingly, Trout is also first in Baseball-Reference.com's Wins Above Replacement (3.4, which

matches his MLB-high production in the WAR calculations of Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs), a

category he has topped the AL in for each of his first five seasons. (The only player to lead a league

six years in a row? Babe Ruth.) Since the start of May, Trout has reached base in 37 of his 74 plate

appearances and hit eight home runs. He’s already been intentional ly walked an MLB-high nine

times—his career high is 14, set two seasons ago—including twice in three games against the Mets

(once in the first inning of a 0–0 game) and six times this month. And a year after being caught

seven times in 37 stolen-base attempts, he’s been thrown out just once in 10 tries this season.

It’s easy to present stat after eye-popping stat with regards to Trout—here's a fun one: With 51.9

career WAR, he’s already passed 46 enshrined Hall of Fame hitters in that category—but it’s harder

to explain how someone so young has become so good with such consistency. It's even harder to

figure out how that player could possibly improve. Trout can’t point to anything specific. “Just being

consistent, putting the ball in play more, squaring up balls,” he said. His teammates, meanwhile,

struggle to explain Trout’s expanded brilliance, if only because they’re so used to it.

“On a day-to-day aspect, we don’t really notice him getting better,” says first baseman C.J. Cron. “It

feels normal to me. Every recollection I have of him, he’s been at an MVP level, and he’s not slowing

down.”

“On a day-to-day aspect, we don’t really notice him getting better,” says first baseman C.J. Cron. “It

feels normal to me. Every recollection I have of him, he’s been at an MVP level, and he’s not slowing

down.”

There has been one notable change in Trout’s swing rate from last season: He's taking more cuts

overall, particularly within the strike zone, and as The Ringer's Ben Lindbergh points out, he's gotten

more aggressive on first pitches. But aside from that adjustment, there's not much else to explain

his uptick. He’s not hitting the ball any harder, his launch angle hasn’t substantially changed, and

there’s been no swing overhaul. Asked for his opinion, manager Mike Scioscia posited that Trout’s

improvement is tied to the experience he’s gained over his first five years. “He’s absorbed

information and he’s become a better player, learned how to apply his tools,” he says .

That tracks with the established belief that a player gets better over time and with regular

exposure, particularly as he ages into his peak (usually between 26 and 30 years old). B ut you

wouldn’t expect that to apply to Trout, because he’s already broken so many of the of the game’s

inviolable rules. A player isn’t supposed to handle the majors with such ease so soon. A player isn’t

supposed to be Hall of Fame-worthy before he’s old enough to rent a car. And a player isn’t, after

starting his career by performing like the peak version of Willie Mays, supposed to find a level

May 26, 2017 Page 23 of 23

beyond that. With someone who’s already as good as Trout is, there’s no explanation that can make

sense of the idea of him getting better, because that idea is completely absurd.

But if there’s one thing that’s likely at the heart of Trout’s potential improvement, it’s the same

thing that has made him this good in the first place: the acceptance that in baseball, you must

confront and conquer failure with crushing regularity. What makes Trout special isn’t just how fast

he can run or how far he can hit the ball or how easily he scales a wall to rob a home run; it’s how

he can survive all the low moments in between.

“A lot of guys would let an 0-for-4 [game] get to them, but Trout will show up the next day like

nothing ever happened,” Cron says. “That’s the mentality that takes him to the next level. He never

dwells on one at-bat. He’ll sometimes laugh about it, and then it’s onto the next one.”

“I just try to keep it as simple as possible,” Trout says. “When you start looking at too much video

[and stats], you start making your mind go crazy, and that’s where you get in trouble. You’ve just

got to go up there and see [the pitch] and react.”

Trout’s success is built on how easily he turns both the brilliant and the difficult into the mundane.

He reduces the sport to its most simple components—a laser-like focus on a single at-bat or a single

game—and executes with ruthless efficiency. The mentality needed to operate that way is hard to

comprehend, just like the numbers he produces. It separates Trout from even the veritable

superhumans who are the best of the best in the game.

That kind of success can be hard to appreciate, particularly given the way Trout packages it: with

little flair. He hits booming home runs, but he doesn’t produce moonshots on the regular. He is a

superb baserunner, but he doesn’t have ridiculous speed. He is an excellent defender, but he

doesn’t dominate highlight reels. The platonic Mike Trout highlight is him taking a perfectly placed

inside fastball and ripping it to the opposite field on a line, or going first to third on a single up the

middle, or running down a deep fly ball without having to dive for it. His seemingly effortless

excellence is borne out of an unrivaled combination of skill and consistency, and his ability to

maintain that consistency makes the possibility of him turning his white-hot start into a season for

the ages a very real one.

A player chasing this kind of immortality should be a household name, but Trout isn’t. He’s reluctant

to step into the spotlight or expand his personal brand while being almost comically reserved

(though polite) with the media. Close to 75% of his at-bats this season will come after 10:00 p.m. ET

and won’t be on national television. The team around him is mediocre at best: Collins was able to

entertain the idea of a bases-loaded intentional walk because the man behind Trout in the order

that night, Luis Valbuena, is hitting .167 in 54 at-bats this season; he popped up in foul territory

after Trout’s sacrifice fly.

The rational thought is that no man, no matter how good, can keep this up. But Mike Trout, the

man who can do it all, routinely defeats rational thought. “If there’s something he’s not good at,”

Pennington says, “I haven’t found it yet.”