You know all about the 23-year-old outfielder’s exploits with the Angels, the 36 home runs last year, the otherworldly .943 career OPS.
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But long before the right-handed slugger won the 2014 AL MVP award, he was a special player. How special? Consider this strange but true feat from Trout’s teen years: While at Millville High School in Millville, N.J., he won a prep home-run derby … batting left-handed.
While Trout never batted left-handed in a high school game, he did play around as a lefty in batting practice.
“I actually beat my high school team in home-run derby left-handed,” Trout told MLB.com. “They made me hit left-handed. … They told me I had to hit lefty or I couldn’t play.”
That revelation came out on MLB.com in a story on high school scouting reports on Trout and Nationals star Bryce Harper. While Harper’s scouting reports touted a future superstar (“Freakish” and “All-Star ability” were two terms that showed up on Harper’s reports), Trout did not immediately overwhelm the scouts. While they liked his overall game as an infielder — one scout called him an “absolute clone of Craig Biggio” — another predicted Trout had Major League potential for only eight to 12 home runs per year.
Much to the Angels’ delight, that scout turned out very wrong. Trout already has 14 home runs in 55 games this year, putting him on pace to hit more than 40.
