Quote:
Originally Posted by cartman
I think I read somewhere that Trout had the flu in spring training, and lost almost 30 pounds. That was what kept him off of the opening day roster.
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No, that was a convenient excuse. Trout still had a good spring when he played.
He wasn't kept off because of illness but because of the outfield logjam in Anaheim, partially created and complicated by Vernon Wells and his massive contract. Going into this season, the Angels had Trout, Wells, Hunter, Bourjos, Abreu, Morales, Pujols and Trumbo for five starting spots. Pujols was going to play 1B of course, so technically it was seven guys for four spots. Trumbo was the best returning power hitter on the team but his only effective position was 1B (3B experiment at start of season==utter failure). Morales was the best hitter on the team before Trumbo and maybe could play some 1B, but mostly had to DH. Hunter, the leader of the team, had to play somewhere, be it CF or RF. And Wells had to play abit at least because of his damn contract. Oh yeah, and Abreu spent all spring bitching about his limited projected role.
There was just no way to work Trout into the lineup, given no one knew he would be so good so quick. Figuring he would have an okay, but not great rookie campaign, they decided Trout needed to play every day at AAA and not put Scioscia in the position of juggling Wells and Abreu and Trout in the lineup.
That set the scene for April, where Trumbo was awful at 3B and cost us games and Pujols did his early season disappearing act. Torii had to leave the team for personal reasons in late April and Morales was slow out the gate. Then Wells hurt himself. So finally they brought Trout up. The rest is what it is.