5 replies to this topic

[RShack]

I don't follow amateur players. I know several folks pay way more attention to draft issues than I do. For those of you who do, why was Trout a sleeper? He got picked at the end of the 1st round. That's not as bad as every team passing on Eddie and Cal, but why did 24 teams pass on Trout? What was invisible to everybody?

[BobPhelan]

I don't think he crept up on anyone. He was a top prospect since he was drafted. When you have a historic season at 20 years old you're going to surprise everyone, I don't care how highly you thought of him.

[FlavaDave10]

I don't follow amateur players. I know several folks pay way more attention to draft issues than I do. For those of you who do, why was Trout a sleeper? He got picked at the end of the 1st round. That's not as bad as every team passing on Eddie and Cal, but why did 24 teams pass on Trout? What was invisible to everybody?

I remember hearing something about how he crosses his hands when he swings or something like that.

Keep in mind that every team passed on Mike Piazza NUMEROUS times.

[Don Olsen]

Mike Trout did not come out of nowhere in terms of rankings. He was always a consensus top 10 player in his class.

Every team held his contact, defense, and speed in high regard. There were mixed results on power ceiling and whether he had the physical projection at that time. In the spring was a mixed bag, Borchering was performing well, and by no means is a 25th player a (where did he come from)...

He has base talent, look at what he did in development. He went from 180 pounds to 210 pounds, jacked. He was tutored well by hitting instructors and started to play in hot weather year around. He had that makeup to push himself beyond the brink, improve.

With the size, he has legit plus power, always had good contact when I saw him in the 2008 summer. He made himself into the total package.

Maybe it is, "not where did he comes from..."

Maybe it is, "Look what you can do when your athletic if he make every effort to be the best baseball player you can be through hard work, effort, and proper coaching."

[DJ MC]

Keith Law has talked about this a couple times this year, and his argument is essentially:

- Trout played high school ball in south Jersey. That isn't exactly a prospect hotbed, so he wasn't playing with particularly good competition.

- The year he came out in the draft saw a lot of terrible weather in that region, so there were fewer chances for scouts to see him than normal.

- The last big-time prospect out of that part of the country before Trout was an athletic kid with huge power potential named Billy Rowell. Scouts saw what happened with Rowell and that made them more wary about drafting similar prospects from that area.

Altogether it ended up meaning that there were too many questions around him to take him as high as he otherwise should have gone.

[RShack]

Keith Law has talked about this a couple times this year, and his argument is essentially:

- Trout played high school ball in south Jersey. That isn't exactly a prospect hotbed, so he wasn't playing with particularly good competition.

- The year he came out in the draft saw a lot of terrible weather in that region, so there were fewer chances for scouts to see him than normal.

- The last big-time prospect out of that part of the country before Trout was an athletic kid with huge power potential named Billy Rowell. Scouts saw what happened with Rowell and that made them more wary about drafting similar prospects from that area.

Altogether it ended up meaning that there were too many questions around him to take him as high as he otherwise should have gone.

That makes sense... thanks...