Trout/Ohtani/Renfroe the past 5 games

[Angel Oracle]

9 for 59

19 Ks/2 BBs

2 doubles, 1 HR, 4 RBI’s

Team went 1-4.

Not going to win many games with that almost total lack of production from spots 2-4

Can’t have that going on too often.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Angel Oracle

[Swordsman78]

The 2 BB is telling.

Pitchers aren't afraid  

[Angelsjunky]

It is disappointing, but as we get deeper into the year and Trout doesn't have an extended hot streak, I am more and more convinced that what we're seeing is actual decline. He's shown flashes, but then cooled off - and not built the momentum that leads to a scorching hot month. Hope he proves me wrong.

[full circle]

1 hour ago, Swordsman78 said:

The 2 BB is telling.

Pitchers aren't afraid  

They shouldn’t be.  94 blows Trout away.  Any breaking ball on the outer half gets Ohtani flailing stupidly, and just don’t hang a slider to Renfroe and you’re good.  

[full circle]

Just now, Angelsjunky said:

It is disappointing, but as we get deeper into the year and Trout doesn't have an extended hot streak, I am more and more convinced that what we're seeing is actual decline. He's shown flashes, but then cooled off - and not built the momentum that leads to a scorching hot month. Hope he proves me wrong.

No.  Not a decline.  He is not swinging correctly.  He needs a hitting coach who understands.  

[Torridd]

45 minutes ago, full circle said:

No.  Not a decline.  He is not swinging correctly.  He needs a hitting coach who understands.  

You fault the hitting coach? I'm curious about this because I want to know what happened to Ward too. I haven't read anything on the causes of his troubles.

[full circle]

5 minutes ago, Torridd said:

You fault the hitting coach? I'm curious about this because I want to know what happened to Ward too. I haven't read anything on the causes of his troubles.

No I don’t “fault” the hitting coach.  I think it’s a good possibility the hitting coaches don’t know how to help him, though maybe not and maybe Trout is still trying to adapt, who knows.  But this is not a new issue.  This stuff can get pretty complicated and you’re talking about changing muscle memory and movement patterns. 

[Angelsjunky]

2 hours ago, full circle said:

No.  Not a decline.  He is not swinging correctly.  He needs a hitting coach who understands.  

Let me put it this way. Hitting and pitching, both individually and collectively, evolve over time. Pitchers get better, hitters counter and get better, and vice versa. This also happens with individual players, as pitchers get the number on a hitter, who then adjusts.

Trout isn't adjusting. Whether it is his swing or difficulty with certain pitches, he's been a different hitter since the start of last year - more streaky, lower contact rate, fewer walks, all while striking out more than ever. This year, he's added a huge reduction in power.

This is not to say that he can't adjust and return to vintage Trout (170+ wRC+). I think it is possible. But what I see is a greater difficulty in making adjustments than before...and this can be a form of decline. It may be less about physical skills than a certain degree of mental flexibility.

He might also be a victim of his own success. "In the past, I'd eventually figure it out...it will just happen." But it isn't just happening. Something is off. Again, I agree this isn't necessarily physical decline, but if the end result is lowered performance, well, that's decline.

[Slegnaac]

The last 5 games Trout is 6 for 20.

.300

That means everyone else is 3 for 39.

.077

 

[Slegnaac]

2 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

The last 5 games Trout is 6 for 20.

.300

That means everyone else is 3 for 39.

.077

 

Trout had 3 BBs and 6 Ks in the last 5 games

[Taylor]

I don't know how to hit the baseball. I just think it's cute to blame the hitting coach when the team overall has been doing well offensively.

[Dtwncbad]

46 minutes ago, cals said:

@Dtwncbad & @Taylor (Gaylor), are you gonna put up with that?

I was going to respond but then I realized that I am a dipshit, and the only reason I am a dipshit is because I don’t have the right “Don’t be a dipshit” coach.

[Angel Oracle]

Worked like a charm for Trout in the first inning this morning.

[Inside Pitch]

 

His last MVP season 

[Make Angels Great Again]

15 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

 

His last MVP season 

 

So the whiff percentage and K% taking a nosedive can't be great. Along with the BB% almost cutting in half.

[Inside Pitch]

Just now, Make Angels Great Again said:

 

So the whiff percentage and K% taking a nosedive can't be great. Along with the BB% almost cutting in half.

Nope, but the rest is mostly noise at this point.  He's been striking out more for years now.

[IheartLA]

this thread reverse jinxed it

[Hubs]

I don't care what happens on the hangout thread, but I would prefer if posters refrained from any sort of slur, whether it's just for fun, or whatever.

I have mentioned this before, but you can't have this kind of thing on the message boards if you want to media members to comment and post like Victor Rojas and Jeff Fletcher.

[gurn67]

Hopefully, today is the start of a hot streak for Trout and Ohtani. The next two weeks will determine the how the rest of the season unfolds. Unfortunately, Lance Lynn doesn't pitch for the Astros, Mariners, or Rangers.

[Blarg]

Let's do Ward, Trout and Ohtani for the last 3 hours. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

14 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

It is disappointing, but as we get deeper into the year and Trout doesn't have an extended hot streak, I am more and more convinced that what we're seeing is actual decline. He's shown flashes, but then cooled off - and not built the momentum that leads to a scorching hot month. Hope he proves me wrong.

Normally I'd be right there with you on this worry. And maybe I kind of do.

That said, and maybe I'm just being a homer, he was still Trout last year (when not hurt), and was still Trout in April. This May is something different. Doesn't seem like decline... too steep.

He's hitting like .280 with 12 HRs or so. Respectable after 2 months.

Problem is it was one month of Trout, one month of Out. Jekyll and Hyde.

As the cold streak continues its impossible to not notice. But for now I'm still confidant something will click for him again soon enough. He's still too good for it not to.

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, Blarg said:

Let's do Ward, Trout and Ohtani for the last 3 hours. 

TDawg can dream.

Speaking of, we need Trout to get it going. Haven't seen a Tdawg "I'll be in my bunk" post forever. And that's one of the AW staple phrases.

[eaterfan]

Hopefully, it's not a decline, but this is the same conversation we were having on this very board in the early Pujols years.

"If you ignore his April when he was adjusting to being on a new team then the rest of the season looks like a vintage Pujols year."

"If you take out the part where he was playing a little hurt, it's not quite a Pujols year, but it's still really valuable."

"Pujols is still good when he makes contact, he just needs to lower his K rate to his normal levels."

 The hot streaks got shorter and the cold streaks got longer. That's just what decline is. He won't forget how to play overnight, but the injuries start taking a toll. The recovery takes longer and isn't as complete. They are all reasons, but it gets harder and harder to think it's not just an aberration, but a trend. It goes from if we take out the cold streak he's the same to if we extend the hot streaks more then he's the same. And the baseline level of play has declined a little. 

I really hope we're just seeing a little bit of a cold streak. 

[Inside Pitch]

14 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Normally I'd be right there with you on this worry. And maybe I kind of do.

That said, and maybe I'm just being a homer, he was still Trout last year (when not hurt), and was still Trout in April. This May is something different. Doesn't seem like decline... too steep.

He's hitting like .280 with 12 HRs or so. Respectable after 2 months.

Problem is it was one month of Trout, one month of Out. Jekyll and Hyde.

As the cold streak continues its impossible to not notice. But for now I'm still confidant something will click for him again soon enough. He's still too good for it not to.

Mike Trout decline talk is always overdone, I think partially because everyone is expecting it to happen and possibly be ugly.

Anyway the dude opened the season hitting .320/'.408/.612 over his first 26 games then had a 14 game stretch where he was awful.  From April 30th to May 16 (14 games) he put up a .185/.267/.259 (526 OPS), batting line -- since then he's gone .292/.393/.625 (1.018 OPS) in 13 games, include the 16th to make it an even two weeks in both samples and it's a .944 OPS.

Trout's been in decline, it's shown up in his walks mostly -- he's 31 and he's bound to be less productive.  But people obsessing over small sample triple slash data are doing it wrong.  Real "scary" decline will show and be worth tracking/talking about when it shows up in the predictive data.   If you want to see what someone looking like they have fallen off a cliff check out Jose Abreu's baseball savant data in 2023 .vs 2022. 

 

When you see a drop-off like that you have to wonder if there isn't an injury or something going on because it's such a steep fall.  But when you look at how big his power drop was last year you almost have to wonder if it started last year and he was actively swinging from the heels to try to fight off the loss of oomph in his swing.

Baseball is hard and for some guys when the end comes, it comes suddenly.

[Lou]

Trout is 7th in the AL in OPS.