Mike Trout, already considered one of the best baseball players of all time after just 10 seasons, may be having a career year in 2021. His slash line is hard to believe, even for a batter of his caliber. With numbers of .365/.484/.692, the latter two of which lead to a league-high and career-best OPS of 1.177, he's looking to become only the second player in league history with four MVP awards.
Another stat that he could lead the league in — one that he's never been tops in before — is longest home run distance. He ranked fourth in 2015 (477 feet) and fourth in 2019 (486 feet), and he currently ranks sixth (464 feet) while Ronald Acuna is in first (481 feet).
One distance that we're almost positive Trout already leads the league in, though, is his tee shot distance. In fact, the average distance of his home runs in feet — 414, to this point in 2021 — might be comparable to the distance of his drives in yards. I know what you're thinking... 400-plus yards? Don't be ridiculous. Those are numbers that only guys like Bryson DeChambeau can put up.
Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to assume that Trout couldn't reach that distance, though. In fact, based on what Angels manager Joe Maddon told Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville in his latest visit to "Starkville," Trout may even be able to outdrive DeChambeau.
"If he puts his mind to anything... you should see this guy hit a ball off a tee. It's insane," Maddon said of Trout. "From what I understand, he went to the — I think it was PXG fitting in spring training before the season began — and the numbers that he put on the TrackMan, whatever it was, exceeds even DeChambeau.
"That's ball off the club head, distance, carry and then roll. They had never seen numbers like that before. But he's got to have the short game too, but just purely hitting it off the tee, the numbers were... I think the comment was, 'we have not seen this before.' "
How far? Well over 300 yards, said Maddon, and though simulated drives may not be as satisfying to watch as the real thing, he did get to see Trout and his Angels teammates on an actual course on a number of occasions.
"We played one day. Him, Albert (Pujols), Dexter (Fowler) and (Justin) Upton really hit it. They teed off in front of us and I think... you know, they make you feel really week," Maddon said. "You really have to be a very strong-minded person to not just want to give it up after watching those four tee shots."
If you're an active social media user, you may not be that surprised to hear about Trout's long-driving abilities. After all, we were fortunate enough to see Trout casually attend a fun outing at TopGolf with his friends — which, by the way, was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, COVID-19 activities and greatly helped hone my golf swing — and absolutely mash a ball into oblivion.
It may not be the straightest drive or the best technique in the world — though who am I to critique that? — but in terms of distance, you really can't do much better than the once-in-a-generation talent that is Mike Trout.
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