Trout, Pujols keep things positive at the plate

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It's a Friday afternoon. Mike Trout is standing inside the Angels clubhouse flashing that million dollar smile. You can see what Nike was thinking.

The Rangers are in town for a weekend series. The club is about 15 minutes away from their standard start of the series hitters meeting. Scouting reports will be discussed. And tape will be watched. A good amount of tape, actually. Primarily, of the opposing pitching staff.

Once the meeting is wrapped up, it will all but sum up the video consumption for the Angels all-star centerfielder for the day.

Everyone has their thing –their methods of preparation. For Trout, video is not one of them.

On his own, he doesn't watch it at all and he prefers it that way.

"I'm not a big tape guy and watching film," Trout said. "I just go out there and react to pitches."

His ability to react at warp speed has made him, arguably, the best player in the game today. It was a part of the recipe for him earlier this season when he delivered his first career walk-off hit –a three-run home run to defeat the Rays, 6-5, in May. 

Trout was looking fastball. He adjusted to the changeup from Rays reliever Brad Boxberger. The ball went 433 feet for an Angels victory.

Simply put, that's Trout. It was an open forum example of his ability to react at the plate. 

"If you're up there thinking you're going to get out 100 percent of the time," Trout said. "Thinking and trying to do things, that's why you hit in the cage and hit BP, you work on things. Once the game comes it just comes. You're not trying to think up there that's when you get in trouble."

Trout's method's aren't common practice inside the Angels clubhouse. In fact, it's the opposite of how future hall of famer Albert Pujols prepares when it comes to video. He's been a huge proponent of video since he's been in the big leagues.

Pujols, a young star in his own right in his early days in St. Louis, watched the likes of Mark McGwire and Scott Rolen among others. Video was a huge part of their preparation. Therefore, Pujols made it a big part of his.

"Ever since day one," Pujols said. "That's part of my preparation. That's part of my routine. Over the last five years you're getting more video."

Trout and Pujols do have something in common when it comes to scouting reports. Neither of them pay much attention. Trout says the extent of his studying would be occasionally finding out how certain pitchers pitches break.

Pujols, trusts his eyes.

"I do my own scouting report," Pujols said. "I go by what I see, what is in front of me and then go with it."

As Pujols noted the technology has improved greatly within the last five years for players and coaches to study film.

The late, great Tony Gwynn was a huge proponent of watching video during a hall of fame career that concluded in 2001. Some credit Gwynn for the way video is used today. An innovator of sorts, even after his playing career, Gwynn continued to emphasize how important he felt video is as a tool when speaking to younger players as well as the teams he coached at San Diego State.

As a staff, of course, the Angels coaches use video on a daily basis. From time to time they'll call players in for individual meetings if anything sticks out from the film.

Any video players choose to watch on their own time is purely up to the player.

"I think everyone's an individual," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I've seen guys look at video and, maybe, it hinders them from some things because they're not really sure what they're looking at. When a player's looking at video you need that coach's experience and coach's eye with them to try to find what you're looking for and to find what's right and what's wrong.

"I think it runs the whole gamut. Some guys really benefit from video with a coach there and some guys are guys that really aren't going to get anything out of video and don't really need it."

In the rare occurrences that Trout does watch video it's if he's in a skid. However, he's not watching his most recent at-bats. Trout instead watches at-bats from when he's performing well at the plate. He says it provides a confidence boost.

Ultimately, for him, it's about getting back to the point where he's not thinking at the plate and just reacting.  

In a sense, it's a similarity Pujols and Trout share. When things aren't going well at the plate they both tend to focus on the positive in order to work themselves out of the rough spot.

Slump, however, is a word you won't hear Pujols utter. It's not in his vocabulary.

 "I don't believe in slump," he said. "I think that's something that people have created to try to mess with people's mind. Sometimes you just need a day off here and there but most of the time you can hit a ball hard and go 0-for-20, 0-for-30, and hit some bullets and just don't find any spot to land the ball.

"They say in the end it's all going to even out. This game never evens out. This game always takes more from you than what it gives us back. That's part of my preparation and my training. Let's just face it, if you train your mind to concentrate on the negative and the bad things you're going through in this game, you're never going to come out (of the rough spot) because that's what you're telling your brain. But if you're putting the positive thoughts and great at-bats in your brain, all of a sudden, you don't even know the 0-for-5 or the 0-for-10 that you just went through."

The game took from Trout on that Friday. He went 0-for-3 with a walk in the series opener against the Rangers  â€“a 7-3 win for the Angels -- snapping a 13-game hit streak. It was the second longest streak of his career. Following the game, he sits at his locker, talking to a couple of teammates. The smile, not as bright, but you can still see a glimmer. The Angels centerfielder is keeping things positive.