Mike Trout Starts Hitting, Is Rewarded With Fastballs Directed At His Chin

Sometimes this comes with schadenfreude, with an athlete that was a particular terror back in her day, but surely nobody, really, can manufacture such resentment toward Mike Trout, a slam-dunk Hall of Famer who, by nature of baseball and signing a 12-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels, was never given the opportunity to terrorize anyone, at least not in a game that really, truly mattered. Trout is now 34. He has played two-or-so full seasons, depending on how you count, since he was named the American League MVP in 2019. One of those seasons took place last year, in which he posted an OPS under .800 and did not play a single game in center field. Judging by the general history of the Angels, the most important singular moment of Trout's career will likely be his at-bat against Shohei Ohtani during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Which all made Mike Trout's start to this season feel a bit like a unicorn reappearing after a four-year-long hiatus. The most enjoyable part of early season baseball is ignoring the wailing child crying about sample size and pretending that everything is meaningful. For those who crave a Trout resurgence, if just to see, again, what made him so great, he has put on a brilliant early showing. Even adjusting for Trout's lofty walking standards, he has been walking a lot because, even now, give Trout something to hit and he will hit it. Pitchers have barely been pitching to Trout, which has resulted in a pretty funny early heat map for the year, in which Trout's wOBA is precisely .000 for a third of the strike zone, including right down the middle of the plate.