Mike Trout Offers Sound Advice To Umpires

By ESPN

Mike Trout is widely regarded as baseball’s best player, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a player who is more universally liked than Trout. He seems to have a running banter with almost everyone when he plays, from opposing catchers to infielders to umpires.

It was during one of those chats with a veteran umpire earlier this spring that Trout offered a thought: As the experienced umpires work their way back into game shape in spring training, just as the players do, why not have them work five or six innings and turn over the last innings to umpires who would normally work minor league games on back fields?

The idea is simple, but it has a lot of helpful layers, beyond allowing an older plate umpire a little more time to work into condition to see 350 or so pitches in a given game. It is extraordinarily difficult for young umpires to advance in the industry because there is little annual turnover among umpires in the big leagues. For a young umpire slated for Class A or AA to get a few innings in a major league exhibition -- with the packed ballpark and major league players -- would be something of a reward, as it is for the minor league players.

One evaluator noted that this would also give baseball officials another chance to see the young umpires at work, under conditions closer to those they experience in the higher levels.

When Trout’s idea was conveyed to baseball officials over the past week, they loved it. "It makes a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons," one official said.

Added another: "That’s Trout: He’s always paying attention to stuff beyond what he’s doing."

Giants hitting coach Meulens is the breakout star of the WBC

One longtime executive noted one of the benefits of the World Baseball Classic: Some players who would not normally have the opportunity to play on a big stage this spring -- or even this year -- got the chance to play in packed ballparks, under pressure, with high stakes.

"They get a chance to show something," the executive said.

This is true for some of the staffers as well. It might be that we remember the 2017 WBC as the time that Hensley Meulens, the San Francisco Giants hitting coach who served as manager of the Netherlands, became a serious candidate to manage in the big leagues.

Officials from some major league teams singled out Meulens as being particularly organized and communicative in the way he handled MLB players, developing plans and making sure those with a vested interest were aware of how each member of his squad was deployed. The Netherlands advanced all the way to the semifinals before losing to Puerto Rico. Meulens seemed very comfortable in his role, getting his players to buy in with text messages, working with his coaches in strategy meetings and showing his comfort with media members from around the world, partly because of his mastery of language. He spoke Korean with reporters while the Netherlands played games in Korea and Japanese when his team shifted to Japan.

Meulens has a relaxed personality, as Giants players will attest, but his competitiveness came through when he pushed for mercy-rule wins and beat Team Israel in a return match. Meulens has spoken about how he would like to get the chance to manage a big league team someday, and he has probably helped his chances through the WBC.

Sunday, March 26 Scoreboard

Spring Training

Toronto 4, Detroit 3

Boston 7, Minnesota 2

New York Yankees 7, Tampa Bay 4

Houston 5, Washington 1

Philadelphia 6, Pittsburgh 3

St. Louis 3, Miami 0

Baltimore 2, Toronto 1

New York Mets 8, Atlanta 2

Chicago White Sox 4, San Francisco 3

Oakland 11, Milwaukee 1

Texas 3, Los Angeles  Dodgers 2

Chicago Cubs 22, Cincinnati 4

Seattle 7, Cincinnati 6

San Diego 9, Chicago Cubs 4

Kansas City 8, Los Angles Angels 7

Colorado 4, San Diego 1

Cleveland 6, Arizona 5

Monday, March 27 Schedule (All Times Central)

Boston at Baltimore, 12:05 p.m.

New York Mets at Miami, 12:05 p.m.

Washington at New York Mets, 12:10 p.m.

Kansas City at  Oakland, 3:05 p.m.

Colorado at Texas, 3:05 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Angels, 3:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at San Francisco, 3:05 p.m.

Seattle at San Diego, 3:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Arizona, 3:10 p.m.

Detroit at  Atlanta, 5:05 p.m.

St. Louis at Houston, 5:05 p.m.

Minnesota at Pittsburgh, 5:05 p.m.

Philadephia at Toronto, 5:07 p.m.

Chicago  Cubs at Cleveland, 8:10 p.m.