OC Register: Mike Trout on a mission to improve his defense, and maybe win a Gold Glove

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — Mike Trout has won two MVPs, a Rookie of the Year, two All-Star Game MVPs and five Silver Sluggers.

He is not satisfied, though.

For all his accomplishments and accolades, Trout has spent six years watching other players win the Gold Glove.

“I think every outfielder that plays this game wants to win a Gold Glove,” he said. “We take pride in our defense. It’s definitely (a goal) that’s out there.”

Trout said at the beginning of spring training that one of his missions for the season was to improve his defense. It’s not only because he wants to win a Gold Glove, but also because he’s heard about the “defensive metrics” that have dogged him in recent years.

While Trout may be universally accepted as the best overall player in the world, one slice of his statistical profile has consistently been a source of mystery to Trout and anyone who watches him.

Most of the advanced defense metrics rate Trout as average, or worse, as a center fielder.

“I don’t know how they come up with that,” Trout shrugs.

Dino Ebel, who coaches the Angels outfielders: “I don’t know. He’s very good.”

Manager Mike Scioscia: “Mike is a terrific center fielder.”

A veteran major league scout who has been watching Trout for years: “There is no way in the world I would even attempt to say Mike Trout is not a great center fielder.”

The picture painted by defensive metrics is quite different, though.

Outs above average (OAA), which comes from MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast, is calculated by factoring in the time the ball is in the air and the distance the fielder has to run to determine the percent chance of each play being made.

Last season, Trout’s OAA ranked him 55th of 71 outfielders — not just center fielders — who had at least 200 opportunities. In 2016, he was 52 of 73.

Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) are both manually calculated, using the spot on the field rather than the distance from the fielder’s starting position. Also, both have variables added to account for an outfielder’s arm, in terms of both assists and preventing runners from attempting to take extra bases.

DRS further takes into account the number of bases, and by extension runs, that are taken from the offensive team by a defensive play being made. An outfielder robbing a hitter of a homer counts for more than an infielder robbing a single.

Last year, Trout finished 25th in DRS and 26th in UZR among the 31 players who had at least 500 innings in center field. In 2016, he ranked 12th and 19th of 32.

Both DRS and UZR are among the metrics baked into the Society of American Baseball Research’s Defensive Index (SDI), which accounts for about 25 percent of the Gold Glove selection process. Trout finished 7th of 11 qualified center fielders in the American League in the SDI in 2017, and sixth of 12 in 2016.

Of course, all of that is viewed by some as being an indictment of the metrics, not Trout.

“Anyone that goes to analytics to question his greatness, that just shows what a millenial-istic society we live in,” the scout said.

To Mark Simon, an analyst with Baseball Information Solutions, and Mike Petriello, a stats analyst from MLB.com, there are other explanations for why the numbers don’t rate Trout’s defense as highly as those doing the “eyeball test.”

First, Trout plays deep, and this year that’s been even more pronounced. So far this season, Trout’s average starting positioning has been 333 feet from home plate, which is the deepest of any center fielder in the majors, according to Statcast. Last year he averaged 324 feet, which was 16th deepest among the 69 outfielders who were in center field for at least 2,000 pitches.

“Coming in on a ball is a lot easier for me,” Trout said. “It’s my personal preference vs. going back on a ball.”

The Angels’ Mike Trout makes a catch at the wall robbing the Texas Rangers’ Mike Napoli of a hit in the tenth inning during the Angels’ 6-5 comeback victory over the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Tuesday, April 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

By playing so deep, though, Trout is allowing more singles to fall in front of him than most outfielders, Simon said. To people watching, those may not even register as catchable balls because Trout started so deep, but DRS and UZR penalizes Trout when balls drop in shallow center field.

Trout also rarely dives. According to Simon, Trout dove for just one ball all season last year, compared with 14 for Gold Glove winner Byron Buxton. Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton led the majors with 20.

Trout nonetheless said he is “trying to be aggressive” and “trying to catch everything.”

Truth be told, the Angels don’t “encourage” Trout or any of their outfielders to dive, Ebel said.

Because of his bat, Trout is far more valuable to his team than Buxton or Hamilton or Tampa Bay’s Kevin Kiermaier, who throw their bodies around with reckless abandon.

Trout jammed his wrist on a dive in the outfield in July 2015. Although he only missed two games and said subsequently it didn’t affect him at the plate, he nonetheless hit .241 over his next 47 games.

Trout’s preference for playing deep may also be protecting him, even though he says it’s simply because he’s more comfortable coming in. The farther Trout has to run to the wall, the less time he’ll have to look or brace himself for a collision.

“The last thing we want to do is put him shallow, and then he’s running full speed into the wall,” Ebel said.

So the trick is to find ways that Trout can improve his defense without putting himself at risk. One of them is improving his arm, which scouts agree he’s been doing for a few years. He spends extra time long-tossing with Kole Calhoun, and throws to bases once a series.

Trout had only six assists his first two full years in the majors, but he had seven apiece in 2015 and 2016, and five in an injury-shortened 2017.

For this season, the biggest point of emphasis is getting quick jumps, which is the key to him covering more ground.

“A guy who has a great first step, but is not as fast as Mike Trout will get to balls that he doesn’t get,” Ebel said. “A lot of guys have a better first step than Mike’s, but he’s working on it … Anytime you say ‘Mike, this is what we need to work on,’ this is what he thrives on.”

Every day in batting practice, Trout stands in center field and reads balls off the bat, taking an immediate step to go get them. Even if he doesn’t chase down every ball, the point of the drill is simply getting moving an instant quicker.

Trout said he’s always done it, but now he’s doing it with more intensity, “instead of going out there and going through the motions.”

Whatever Trout does to improve, he is still likely to be at the mercy of factors beyond his control.

For starters, he is 240 pounds, so he’s never going to be able to move the same way as the 190-pound Buxton. The scout said Trout is like a linebacker, while Buxton is like a safety.

Also, when it comes to the Gold Glove, Trout is not going to be able to do anything about the number of outstanding center fielders on other teams.

“I do think we have the best defensive center fielders in the history of baseball right now,” Petriello said. “I don’t think it’s a demerit to him to say he’s the 15th-best center fielder.”

Trout is also unfortunate to have come along at a time when the Gold Glove process changed. Besides adding the metrics, which don’t favor him as much as the “eyeball” test, the award used to be given to the top three outfielders. Often, three center fielders won. Now, it’s position specific, so there’s only one award available for a center fielder.

This is also an era when outfielders are simply getting fewer opportunities, because there are more home runs, walks and strikeouts. As the sample size of balls in the outfield shrink, it’s more likely for an outfielder to be victimized over a whole season by too many chances that are too hard or too easy.

There is also the viewpoint that all of this is mere quibbling.

Certainly, no one doubts that Trout is the best overall player in the majors, so arguing where he stands from a pure defensive standpoint is perhaps splitting hairs unnecessarily.

“If you have 30 of the best golfers in the world,” Scioscia said, “and one of them is No. 30 and one is No. 1 and one is No. 15, they are all great golfers. Mike is a great center fielder.”

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[Make Angels Great Again]

Apparently Petriello doesn't remember Andruw Jones.

Pretty sure his CF glory days were the greatest.

 

 

[krAbs]

"“Anyone that goes to analytics to question his greatness, that just shows what a millenial-istic society we live in,” the scout said."

LOL, okay bro.

 

Anyways...This seems like a clear place where Trout can improve his game and value. That's CRAZY when you consider how much value he already has. As long as he can do so without hurting himself or letting his offensive game slide, then this seems like a great opportunity for him. This is one of those things that make Mike so great - always looking for holes in his game to plug and improve on. Along this same line, you can see how much progress he has made with striking out. Still hoping that that will start to show up in this batting average this year.

[tdawg87]

Definitely should have won his rookie year. 

[Make Angels Great Again]

Here's something crazy. Trout had a -1.0 DWAR in 2013 and a +2.0 DWAR in 2012.

If Trout had replicated his defense from the previous year in 2013 he would have had a WAR of exactly 12.0

That would have been the 6th highest single season WAR of all time.