MLB Baseball Column: Scott's MLB Shots

You’ve probably seen it a dozen times by now. They are calling it “The Catch of the Year,” and it’s still June.

On Wednesday night in Baltimore, Los Angeles Angels centerfield Mike (The Millville Meteor) Trout tracked down a home-run bound flyball off the bat of the Orioles J.J. Hardy, went up and almost completely over the fence at Camden Yards and grabbed the ball for a long, loud, lonely out.

If you haven’t seen the catch you should go over to Youtube and watch it. It’s phenomenal.

However, it wasn’t so much the catch that told the story. The story is this: Mike Trout is playing baseball right now the way the game’s scouts thought Mickey Mantle would play the game when he was 20.

It’s not that Mantle wasn’t great when he was older. To this day, The Mick is one of the greatest players in the game’s history. But baseball historians still wonder how great he could have been had he not torn up his knee in Game 2 of the 1951 World Series.

“He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game and yet he only performed with 80 per cent of his God-given talent,” said Casey Stengel, late in Mantle’s career. “It’s absolutely frightening how good he could have been if he had been 100 per cent for his whole career.”

Mantle was a 19-year-old rookie when he tore up his ACL in the ’51 Series. He went on to play 17 seasons – all with a sore right knee – and won three MVP awards, hit 523 homers, stole 145 bases, and played 12,000 innings in center field. He was a Hall of Famer and a remarkable one at that. Amazingly, the guy roaming centerfield in an Angels uniform right now, reminds so many oldtimers of Mantle that it’s scary. After all:

1) Mantle hit his first homer on May 1, 1951. He was 19 years and 192 days old. Trout was exactly two weeks shy of his 20th birthday when he hit his first homer.

2) Mantle was blonde, 5-foot-11, 195 pounds. Trout is blonde, 6-foot-1, 210 pounds. Considering the eras in which they play, they have the same body type.

3) In his first 96 games in the Majors, Mantle hit .267 with 13 homers and 65 RBI. He had eight steals, a .443 slugging percentage, 11 doubles, three triples and 61 runs scored. In his first 94 games in the Majors, Trout has hit .301 with 13 homers and 48 RBI. He has 25 stolen bases, a .488 slugging percentage, 20 doubles, three triples and 68 runs scored. 

4) They both play centerfield and they both look great doing it.

Of course, in 2009, when an Angels scout told Baseball America, that “comparing Trout to Mantle is a pretty fair assessment,” then all the talk began, but Trout has put up some pretty impressive numbers.

Even Mike Scoscia, his manager and a guy who actually saw Mantle play, figures his young centerfielder is beginning to measure up.

"Mike's playing at a high level, and he obviously has the potential to do some of the things he's doing on the field," manager Mike Scioscia told reporters before the game in Baltimore on Wednesday night. "But to see someone as young as Mike is -- experience-wise and age -- come up and play at this level has been an awakening for our team. It's been fun to watch and hopefully it's going to continue."

"He's always hit for high average wherever he's been. He takes his walks. He has the speed you need to take the mis-hits and get a base hit out of it. I don't think you want to put too many expectations on one player, but certainly his skill set says some of the numbers that are popping up are something that he's able to do.”

Since Trout joined the team on April 28 of this season, he has brought the Angels from dead last (7-14) in the AL West to second (42-33), 4 ½ games behind Texas. The Angeles have gone 35-19 since trout was called up from the Salt Lake Bees of the Pacifica Coast League.

Last season, as a 19-year-old wide-eyed rook, Trout hit .220. This year, he’s hitting .344 and leads the American League in batting. He is the first member of the Angels to lead the ALL in batting since Garret Anderson was leading with a .322 average on Sept. 2, 2003.

One scouting service described Trout this way: “Elite talent that should contribute in every phase of the game as soon as late 2012.

“Built like a football safety, Trout is an extreme quick twitch, muscular athlete.? He is a tireless worker, great teammate and is generally regarded as a good guy. Some consider his makeup his most outstanding attribute, which is saying something. Potential to be an elite level hitter. Generates plus to plus-plus bat speed with strong wrists and plenty of drive from his lower half.

“Shows true 80-grade speed from home-to-first and covers a ton of ground in the outfield. Absolute burner right now though there are some mild concerns that he will slow down as he matures. Even if he does, he’s probably still a plus-plus runner.

“Game changing hitting ability, speed and defense, along with very good power. His makeup is spectacular and actually helps his already impressive tools play up even more. Potential face of the franchise caliber superstar.”

Mike Trout might be a long way from ever becoming Mickey Mantle. But for those of us who saw Mantle in his prime, a guy who was seldom if ever at 100 per cent, Mike Trout has a chance to be remembered with the same fondness.

Not surprisingly, the catch he made on Wednesday night sent plenty of people to Twitter. One of those people was Baltimore’s Adam Jones, like Trout a young centerfielder. However, in this case it’s a young centerfielder who might lose a lot of all-star spots and Gold Gloves to the Angels new Golden Boy. Jones Tweeted: “This kid @Trouty20 is a freak of nature. I'm just saying.”

Yeah, Adam, we’re all just sayin’.