Like a gunshot in a forest, a clarion blast pierced the quiet of the back fields at the Angels’ spring training complex, where Double A and Triple A preseason games between the Angels and Rockies played out on adjacent fields in front of no more than two dozen spectators. It was the unmistakable sound of major league contact. Mike Trout, batting in the Double A game as a tune-up for the season, ripped a long home run off a minor league Rockies pitcher who never had seen such bat speed and strength.
As Trout rounded the bases, an Angels coach watching the Triple A game and alerted by the sound of such contact walked the 25 feet to the Double A diamond. “Let me guess,” the staffer said, “breaking ball in the zone?”
Correct. The pitch was a slider over the plate. To paraphrase Jim Croce, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind and you don’t mess around with a breaking ball in the zone to Trout. Over the past four years, Trout has slugged an MLB-best .847 on breaking balls in the zone. Nobody else is within 98 points of him.
