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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Can somebody check if the Mayans said anything about the 2012 rookie season Anaheim Angels centerfielder Mike Trout was going to have? Because Trout is having a timewave zero of a first big league summer: anybody who's seen him play feels like they're witnessing something ancient and simultaneously brand new. He has this baseball Jesus quality that is quantifiable in the Wins Above Replacement language of the Moneyball tribe while pleasing to the sensibilities of the Trouble With the Curve generation. He gets on base and he takes the extra base. Perhaps he should be stepping away occasionally from the ongoing AL pennant race to heal this wasteland and bring water to our wounded king rather than calling GQ to hawk his new partnership with BodyArmor SuperDrink. But hey, he's only 21 years old. Whatcha gonna do.\n\n\u00B7\u00B7\u00B7\n\nGQ: You scared the hell out of me in my fantasy baseball playoffs, and I know I'm not alone. Do you realize how many fantasy leagues you've turned upside-down this year? Nobody expected you to be this great\u2014it destroyed the competitive balance!\n\n Mike Trout: [Laughs] That's pretty crazy. I hear a lot of stuff on twitter that I'm on their team.\n\nGQ: Maybe we should've seen this coming\u2014you do have the New Jersey state high school home run record. It seems like people sort of slept on you.\n\n Mike Trout: Yeah. Florida, California\u2014those baseball players can play year round, but we have seasons back in Jersey. It's hard to play when there's six feet of snow on the ground.\n\nGQ: You were right there in the Yankees backyard, but the Angels kind of snaked you away.\n\n Mike Trout: Going into the draft I thought I was going to be in the top three rounds. When the Angels picked me 25th, it was a good feeling going in the first round. I knew the Yankees were two behind me and they were really high on me. It was pretty cool to go in the first.\n\nGQ: What was it like having Yankees scouts at your games as a high schooler?\n\n Mike Trout: I got to know the Yankees scouts a little bit. I introduced myself. They would just show up at random games. It was pretty crazy.\n\nGQ: See that creep in the trench coat, he's with the Yankees!\n\n Mike Trout: Yeah, he's with the Yanks. [Laughs]\n\nGQ: Right at this moment, you're leading the league in stolen bases and you've only been caught four times. You also lead the American League in defensive runs saved in the outfield with 27. This is all high level, Rickey Henderson baseball genius stuff. How did you learn these things so young?\n\n Mike Trout: My dad was always there for me. He played minor league ball and he made it to Double-A. He was always there flipping to me in the cage and doing little stuff. I'm also fortunate enough to Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells next to me playing in the outfield.\n\nGQ: You score 45 percent of the time that you're on base, which is insane. Your baserunning seems like an intuitive behavior.\n\n Mike Trout: Just being aggressive\u2014that's the way I think of it. Knowing what you're doing before the play happens. If I'm on first base, I want to steal second. [laughs] So, you know, even when I'm on first and don't steal second? Base hit anywhere, I want to be on third. Lots of big innings start when you go first to third. Just being aggressive and knowing what you're doing.\n\nGQ: Were you aggressive in other sports?\n\n Mike Trout: Yeah basketball\u2014getting rebounds over bigger guys than me.\n\nGQ: What drives that aggression?\n\n Mike Trout: Just always trying to win. Everything I can do and everything I force myself to do there's one goal: to win."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/baseballs-new-king-fish-a-quick-chat-with-rookie-of-the-century-mike-trout>