Trout rarely takes 3-0 bait
Angels star has swung only 15 times with three-ball count in 374 career plate appearances.
Mike Trout hits for average, for power and in the clutch. His discerning eye has him leading baseball in walks and on-base percentage. He is one of the game’s fastest baserunners and has evolved into an elite defender. Yet nine years into his career, there is still one thing the Angels center fielder is extremely reluctant to do: swing at a 3-and-0 pitch.
According to the website Baseball Savant, Trout has swung at 3-0 pitches only 15 times in 374 career plate appearances, producing one single — off Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma on April 8, 2015 — in five official at-bats.
Ninety-two of those 3-0 counts started intentional walks. The other 14 swings in the 282 nonintentional-walk plate appearances resulted in two fly-ball outs, two ground-ball outs, seven foul balls, one sacrifice fly and two swinging strikes.
Trout has not swung at a 3-0 pitch since Sept. 26, 2016, a foul ball against Oakland’s Sean Manaea, giving him an active streak of 134 straight 3-0 pitches he has taken.
“So the goal for opposing pitchers is to get to 3-0 to Mike Trout,” joked Tim Salmon, the former Angels right fielder and current Fox Sports West commentator. “You’ve got him right where you want him.”
Well, not quite. In the 350 plate appearances in which he’s put a 3-1 pitch in play, Trout has a career .446 average, 1.682 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 19 homers, 14 doubles and 40 RBIs. So it’s not as if his aversion to 3-0 pitches has hurt him.
But it does seem strange that Trout, an eight-time All-Star starter, two-time most valuable player and four-time MVP runner-up, is so passive in a count that many players do damage in and on a pitch that is often — but not always — a fastball thrown right down the middle.
Angels left fielder Justin Upton is hitting .514 (18 for 35) with a 2.247 OPS, eight homers and 15 RBIs in 177 plate appearances in which he has put a 3-0 pitch in play.
First baseman Albert Pujols is hitting .365 (38 for 104) with a 1.602 OPS, eight homers and 30 RBIs in 661 plate appearances where he has put a 3-0 pitch in play, including the two-run homer he hit on a 3-0 fastball in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 5-4 win over Baltimore.
“I’ve never talked to him about it, but I can understand where he’s coming from because even on 3-0 counts, they don’t want to take a chance of him swinging,” Upton said of Trout.
“So he’s going to get a competitive pitch the majority of time on 3-0. They’re not just going to groove a heater. They either try to crowd him or throw a borderline pitch away.”
The statistics support Upton. The fourth pitch to Trout in 197 of the 204 plate appearances on 3-0 pitches has been ball four. And despite the damage Trout does on 3-1 pitches, he has drawn walks in 189 of the 350 plate appearances that ended on 3-1 pitches.
“It’s a little surprising because, to me, that 3-0 pitch all of a sudden becomes like a first pitch, and he rakes on the first pitch,” Salmon said of Trout, who has a .404 average, 1.152 OPS, 20 homers and 80 RBIs when he puts the first pitch in play.
“So why can’t you be in that same mind-set, other than maybe at that point he’s saying, ‘I’m that close to getting on base and making things happen.’ Maybe he’s thinking he can get on base and create just as much havoc.”
Trout offers a simple reason for not attacking more 3-0 pitches.
“I get out of my approach,” Trout said. “I swing too hard. I try to hit the ball too hard. Usually, I just foul it back. I’ve just never gotten comfortable doing it.”
That doesn’t mean Trout won’t ever be aggressive in 3-0 counts.
“It all depends on how I’m feeling,” he said.
The fact that Trout has been one of baseball’s best hitters for almost a decade would seem to indicate he is often feeling good at the plate, but when would he feel good enough to attack a 3-0 pitch?
“I can’t tell you all my secrets,” Trout said with a grin. “There’s a time when I’ll do it. My mind-set just has to be right that day. Some days I feel good doing it. Some days I don’t.”
Despite the success he has had swinging at 3-0 pitches, Upton is often reluctant to do so.
“It’s a tough spot to hit in, because if you swing at a bad pitch then it was probably ball four, and if you pop it up, then you could have put a better swing on a 3-1 pitch,” Upton said.
“There’s always that ‘what if’ when you make an out. But when you execute it, everybody loves it, you know?
“It’s risk-reward. If you pop up, it’s, ‘Why’d you swing at a 3-0 pitch?’ There’s a lot more risk than reward.”
Angels manager Brad Ausmus, who played 18 big league seasons, said there was a learning curve to hitting 3-0 pitches.
“On 3-0, your strike zone shrinks down into something about this size,” Ausmus said, his hands forming a circle the size of a grapefruit. “Sometimes guys try to hit the ball harder or farther, they go outside the zone and they make an out. You have to get the ball in your sweet spot and only swing in that zone.”
Ausmus has spoken to Trout about his reluctance to swing on 3-0, reminding him he can take advantage of 3-0 counts “especially because teams are aware that he rarely swings on 3-0,” he said.
But by no means does he want Trout to alter his overall approach at the plate. Trout appears on track to win his third MVP award. In addition to leading MLB in onbase percentage (.438), walks (84) and wins above replacement (6.9), he leads the American League in OPS (1.094), homers (35) and RBIs (86).
“No, no, he’s fine,” Ausmus said. “Trust me, I’m not looking to change Mike Trout.”
Adell moving up to triple A
Jo Adell, the Angels’ top minor league prospect, will be promoted to triple-A Salt Lake this weekend. The outfielder is batting .304 with a .937 OPS at two lower levels this season.
Adell, 20, was the 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Louisville.
He has risen steadily through the farm system, although he missed the first 10 weeks of this season recovering from a sprained right ankle and strained left hamstring.