How Were 24 Players Drafted Ahead of Mike Trout? | Baseball Bits 

Trout actually slashed .287//377/.561 in 2014. Got the batting average wrong. DFA him and myself immediately.

My wife left me for Mike Trout's Baseball Reference page

Coaches: This guy was a future Hall of Famer how did we miss him? Scouts: Well you see it was too cold...

Next up on Baseball Bits: *A look back on the 1,389 players taken ahead of Mike Piazza* Great vid as always!

I'm sure Trouts comforted by that extension worth the GDP of a small country.

I like to imagine Mike Trout took down names of each team that passed on him, and noted that when he played them, he was going to decimate them, but it was more teams than he thought it was going to be, so he scratched the plan and decided to just make all of them look stupid.

ESPN posted an article about this recently... the Angels staff in charge of selecting Trout were quoted as saying they picked Trout 25th to suppress his signing bonus. Teams were floating $1 million above slot for Trout, so the Angels made him their "second" choice to create and artificially-diminished valuation. Also interesting was the Angels scout who claims to have had Trout rated as an overall 75 on the 20-80 scale, only to lower that number to a 68 because he had never given a high school kid above a 70.

Wow, what a copycat 😂. THIS IS CLEARLY A JOKE. THIS VIDEO IS WAY BETTER THAN MINE.

5:42. "Large Attractive" I don't know why I find that so funny

Mike Trout so deserves his greatness in baseball for showing up there. Complete nice guy.

Honestly almost made me tear up that he was the only one who showed up. It just shows how much he was meant to be the greatest from the very start and how much his heart is in it then and still always is. He’s just having fun out there

People always say you are a baseball version of Jon Bois, and that’s close, but I think of you more as a baseball version of Summoning Salt.

Foolish Baseball is a family friendly channel LMAO large attractive on Bartolo Colon

Imagine being a top prospect, being asked to the MLB draft where you are almost guaranteed to be selected, and not going. I can't fathom anyone saying no to that yet there was only one person who said yes

Meanwhile my player on The Show gets picked in the 18th round then goes on to be a Hall of Famer because i'm playing on Rookie

You and Marc making such similar videos reminds me of an old Pablo Francisco joke: 'when two women wear the same dress to a party...you *know* it's gonna go down. But when two dudes wear the same shirt to a party... FRIENDS FOR LIFE!'

Seeing Tyler Matzek on the below 5 war section really hits home how magical he was during the braves world series run. Truly one of my favorite pitchers to see on the mound all last season. Wishing him a speedy recovery and return this season.

I personally know the Angels scout who covered the northeast region during the Trout draft. He helped me secure a baseball scholarship in Connecticut. He was asked to submit his top 3 draft choices to the war room. He wrote down Mike Trout for all 3 and said if you pass on this kid you're passing on a Hall of Famer. I think it's safe to say he was good at his job.

3:44 “A collection of real major league nonfactors” Tyler Matzek’s huge nuts say otherwise Bailey

To be honest. Trying to determine what kid is gonna turn out in baseball is damn tough. Do a video on how many number 1 overall picks in the MLB draft didn't pan out. PS it's alot

Angels had Trout #2 overall on their big board and would've taken him over Grichuk. The story goes that scouting director Eddie Bane promised Greg Morhardt, the area scout who had scouted Trout, that the Angels would take Trout with the team's first pick. When the Angels announced Grichuk's name first, "Morhardt almost fainted," says Bane. "That was kind of cruel of me, but I thought it was funny." So in essence, they selected Grichuk over Trout to simply play a huge goof on Morhardt.

BREAKING: FOOLISH BASEBALL HAS GONE CRITICAL BONKERS

One thing that was left out here that may have scared teams away from Trout was that he was considering attending college at East Carolina and not signing right away. This might have caused teams not to consider drafting him, for fear that they might waste their top pick on someone who doesn't sign (this happened later with draft bust Mark Appel, who was drafted eighth in 2012 and didn't sign, choosing to attend Stanford, only to be drafted first the next year).

The 21 dislikes this video receives will be from the 21 teams that struck out on Trout.

This has gotta be the best Mike Trout video I have ever Mike Trout seen! In these 12 Mike Trout minutes, you taught me everything I needed to know about the Mike Trout draft and the Mike Trout prospects picked ahead of Mike Trout. I am also from Mike Trout New Jersey, so it’s nice to see some Mike Trout representation.

The production quality of your video is so good. The details, the narrative, the graphics and the music.👌I'm envious

Funny that matzek is on there and now he’s a beast

There is no doubt that this is the most underrated RU-vid channel on the site

"Now you might recognize some of these names." Me: Joey Wheeler

10:50 lmao 'the Los Angeleez Angels'

i love the retro style of your videos and the step by step breakdowns, so entertaining!

always love coming back to this video, personally one of my favourite baseball bits

Yes thank you for the Trout episode I kept commenting asking for one and you said it was coming It's amazing I'm a Yankees fan

Even though I knew it was coming, I still teared up at the end of the video when Trout finally got picked and was the lone player to attend.

Such a great and entertaining video. You do outstanding work man.

“You get a Tommy John” 😂😂😂😂

Keith Law tells a story about how the Angels GM fangled the Trout pick away from the A's. "Farhan [Zaidi] and I -- further proving the Peter Principle -- flew out together to go watch him, normally not a trip I would make, to see a high school outfielder from a small town across the country," Beane said to ESPN's Keith Law. "Trout went like 0-for-5, popped out, so we didn't even get to see him run." The A's had seen Trout show off his skills before, however, and the Angels heard of word of their interest from none other than ... Trout's father. "Jeff [Trout] called me, said [A's assistant GM] Dave Forst saw him hit three home runs in a weekend, and Jeff said, 'Well, he wants [Mike] to come to Oakland for a workout,'" Greg Morhardt, Angels Northeast area scout, told Law. "I'm thinking if you spend the whole day with Mikey you're gonna take him and Billy's a smart guy. I'm thinking I've got to stop this." Morhardt and Jeff Trout have a long standing relationship. The two played with each other in the minor leagues in the 1980s, and the two were even roomates during spring training. He also made up a story to Jeff that the Angels had a workout the same day as the A's, and did everything is his power to get an actual workout in place that day to get Trout to Southern California instead of the Bay Area. "If Billy had gotten him there, it would have been over," Morhardt said to Law. "You get Mike in your ballpark, and I don't know where he would have been hitting balls." Trout has been to Billy's ballpark, and the A's have paid ever since. In 72 trips to Oakland, Trout has hit 16 home runs -- his second-most at any opposing ballpark -- and he has a .905 OPS at the Colisuem. Overall, Trout is batting .305 with 31 homers against the A's. "Since then, Trout went on his own personal iron fleet in the Greyjoy. He's the fourth Greyjoy, just destroying us, with a vengeance worse than Euron's to remind the A's they should have taken him," Beane said to Law. www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/how-angels-stopped-picking-mike-trout-back-2009-mlb-draft

Marc did it first. Foolish did it better.

man, never thought i'd hear one of the soundtracks of my childhood again, much less in a baseball video. i played a lot of megaman on the game boy as a kid!

My new favorite YT channel! Keep up the wonderful work!

Secaucus sounds like a town that's only notable for how funny its name sounds Perfect place for a baseball draft

Great video as always! The A's took Grant Green ahead of Mike Trout, I remember his debut in Pittsburgh and thats all I remember from him lol. Also, I know why Randal Grichuk was taken ahead of Trout. According to their head scouting director of the time Eddie Bane, he says he wanted to kind of show up Trout's agent Craig Landis who kept changing the amount of money it was going to take to sign him. You can hear the full story from Bane's voice on Anthony Castrovince's podcast called Full Account, that's where I heard it. He did 6 episodes all about the 2009 draft, one being about Mike Trout. It is a really good podcast. See you tonight on your live stream!

The craziest story I've heard as a Dodger fan was that the DBacks had back to back picks in the 2009 draft, and like 5 picks out of the first 60 picks or something, so they planned all along to take a high-end college prospect followed by a high-end high school prospect. They had planned for a while to take Trout as the high-end high school prospect, but a couple days before the draft their scouts went to see Trout one last time. Trout had apparently his worst ever game he's ever played, high school or pro, and the scouts had second thoughts, and that's what prevented the Dodgers from having to see Trout 19 times a year. Still sucks he's on our cross-town rival, but definitely an interesting story of how one off game could've affected so much of baseball history

The deep level of stats, metrics, and you dissect is insane!!

I'm a simple man, I see Baseball Bits, I click.

Thank you for addressing the reasons why teams were weary about taking Trout as well. There have been hundreds of cool weather prep bats that looked good in spring competitions that completely dropped off in full season ball. Obviously Trout was different, but it definitely wasn’t a sure fire pick at the time like a lot of people let on

Please make more videos I love them so much man they’re like 5 course meals to me

these 8bit videos are godlike thank you!!

How to be the best player in baseball: Step 1: Show up to the mlb draft

I approve of the meagaman music.

Man we need more videos! I can watch these all day long

I can confirm. In new jersey the weather always finds a way to mess up our high school bassball games. Always

Picked up Trout as a FA in his first season, saw him being mentioned when he was called up and took the chance not knowing a thing other than his name being a fish. Dude rode my team into a championship, never had a luckier FA pickup in any fantasy leagues since.

Definitely my favorite baseball channel 👏🏻 well done as always

Every 4 months I watch this vid and i'm amazed. Greetings from The Netherlands.

grew up in NJ. Proud. Go Trout

You know what ticks me off? The Diamondbacks were planning to take Trout with one of their picks. WE COULD HAVE HAD THE FISH MAN.

I now associate the Mega Man 4 ending with the Millville Meteor, and thats okay

Baseball bits has become my favorite RU-vid series, its absolutely fantastic

I just watched that video yesterday lol Love your vids keep it up!

imagine mike trout on the 2010 giants 💀

Millville Meteor, a joke nickname invented on the SomethingAwful Forums, managed to gain credence across the internet and then real life. XD

I love rewatching old videos I loved in the past, I binge ur stuff bout every video u drop, yet I just notice the largely attractive Bartolo colon shout out. I can’t stop laughing.

I remember reading an article that talked about one of the Angels scouts being obsessed with Trout, and that scout was the driving force behind the Angels drafting him. Also, as a Braves fan, the fact that we drafted Minor over Trout still keeps me awake at night.

The one dislike is obv from Grichuk

Frowned when I spotted the clip of trout with Skaggs’ pitch count in the bottom right corner😕

You did it again! Great video! Large Attractive joke was hilarious

I have been watching giraffe for so long, way before his channel had 20k subs. Great video, keep the uploading!

Remember when Trout threw a no-hitter? He was Ohtani before Ohtani!

My dad was the scout who drafted him, he said he would go to games and hope he played bad because the other scouts couldn’t tell that he was a future hall of famer... then he prayed he would fall to 24 and 25.

This may be the best video on RU-vid? It's like a movie I watch over and over.

favorite baseball channel, thanks for your hard work!

God your channel is so good

This dude hits .300 and that’s his worst season, wtf man this dude might be one of the best ever

Yet another amazing video can’t wait to watch the stream tonight!

Great video! Very poetic in its construction!!!

When your worst MLB OBP is .377 and you got picked 25th you know it’s bad.

Sentence 1: "That might be too harsh" Follow-up sentence: "Let's move on, the mediocrity is making me sick."

Another great video! Hope you see a subscriber boost soon! This is quality original baseball content and your channel deserves better. Keep up the great work!🙌⚾️👍

I will forever associate the ending of MM4 with the Millville Meteor. Thanks FFBB

The only team who gets a pass is Washington. Strasburg has been pretty damn good

Do a video on the Rays insanely good trade steals over the years, it’s actually pretty interesting

This is so amazing.

Crazy thing is I grew up 20 minutes from him and knew about him since I was little

2:33 The Trout 24 3:20 High School Hitters 3:45 Major League Non-Factors 4:00 Recognizable names 4:31 Pitchers with Tommy John 4:42 Mike Leake 5:00 Stephen Strasburg 5:28 Mike Trout 6:18 Pick pick pick 6:42 The United States of America 🇺🇸 and The Caribbean 7:28 Millville New Jersey 8:32 Perfect Game, USA 9:26 Wiffing 9:53 2014 Worst year 10:44 Michael Trout

I think the problem is that there is not enough information on high school hitters and MLB exec's also are afraid that a hitter who has mostly seen fastballs and change ups of potentially iffy quality might wilt before major league hitting. So a lot of GMs want to wait until they've seen a player against similar competition or with their own eyes and because the college game is more consistent, the pitching of a higher quality, and usually the batters have matured more by that point as well GMs generally are more random on high school picks and some are wary of them in the first place. I don't know the state of high school stats or record keeping but seeing as I am in the Billy Bean camp on the Baseball Draft until you get a pitchfx like system installed in every or most high schools fields I don't think ANY MLB team should draft ANY high school players. In fact considering the chance of flameout are pretty bad I am not sure if any MLB team should be allowed by MLB to draft a high school player let alone in the early rounds where the player might be tempted by the signing bonus to sign before they feel they are ready. To be frank I don't what you're angry about (serious or not), why in God's name was a MLB, presumably run by professionals, drafting a high school player in the MLB Draft at all. Everything looks different with hindsight I think based on what they knew of him Mike Trout should not have been drafted until he had at least one season of college baseball under his belt. And the same goes for all of the other high school players drafted in that draft or any.

This is amazing content

8:42 Randal Grichuk was also drafted out of high school. Source: I went there too (LCHS).

Do Kerry Wood 20 K game, near perfecto pls

"large attractive"

I always love to see your videos pop up I can’t wait to feast on this one

Trout is one of the best baseball player I’ve ever seen

First!! Mega Man III (Maybe??!)

You just passed over Tyler Matzek, nothing to see there...

What an incredible random story. Had no idea he was the only one present at the draft. Wow.

I love how you got megaman 3 music in the background 😂

Yknow you mentioned the brady 6 but honestly "the brady 6" really undersells it if you're gonna compare trout to everyone before him. Tom Brady was passed over for 198 other players.

This video is really good. But it's not Pretty Good.

id love to see a video on Phil Hughes' 2014 season where he set the record for most K/BB, because I honestly didnt know he had it

It’s honestly crazy and makes so much sense that he was the only one that showed up 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️