Remember all that talk in April about Mike Trout no longer being the best player in baseball? Yeah, that was a quaint notion.
With the calendar about to flip to July, the Angels' outstanding center fielder is once again the best in the game. Trout is batting .319/.415/.572 with 17 homers, 53 RBI, 55 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases with a weighted on-base average (wOBA) of .413 a weighted runs created (wRC+) of 167. He also leads all of baseball in fWAR at 4.6. Josh Donaldson, Jose Altuve and Manny Machado are all tied for second at 4.0.
Yes folks, Mike Trout is back, and frankly, he never really went away. He is hitting for power, average, playing solid defense, and stealing bags again. But what he did against the Houston Astros on Monday night was flat-out ridiculous.
.@MikeTrout went golfing last night ...
That's the lowest pitch hit for a HR since 2013. https://t.co/ZIWKSNJQ4R pic.twitter.com/r3QZ6VxEGt
— #Statcast (@statcast) June 28, 2016
According to MLB's Statcast, it was the lowest pitch hit for a homer since this shot by Freddy Galvis against the New York Mets in April of 2013 (skip to the 3:43 mark of the video below).
Statcast noted Trout's dinger was less than a foot off the ground when he made contact. I mean, just look at this.
Look at where Trout hit this HR. Just look. https://t.co/LxY0QDqF8B pic.twitter.com/0wXh3Vrp7z
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) June 28, 2016
Trout has now homered in three straight games, which ties the longest streak of his career, previously set from September 16 through 18 in 2013. But even after that nice drive into the fairway over the left field wall, Trout wasn't done.
Flash back quickly to Saturday, when Houston's Jose Altuve fell a triple short of the cycle against the Royals when he stumbled rounding second base. It was hilarious.
Now fast forward to Monday night, with Altuve and the Astros in L.A. playing Trout and the Angels. In the sixth, Trout hit a shallow fly to right that fell in for extra bases.
So, that happened.
We don't get to talk about Mike Trout a lot here because he's just so consistently excellent that there's really nothing to discuss. But for one night at least, Trout was one of the most interesting men in baseball.