Some impressions of Mark Trumbo

Before he came to the Orioles, I had a pretty stereotyped impression of Mark Trumbo: big power, lots of strikeouts, pull hitter, kind of lumbering, poor outfielder, serviceable 1B.

My impression after six game is a bit different. I've been pretty impressed with the fact that Trumbo does not try to hit every ball out of the ballpark and pull everything to LF. To the contrary, he has a relatively controlled swing and hits the ball where it's pitched. Yes, his swing seems a bit stiff and he's trying to do some damage, but overall he seems like he can adjust to what is being thrown and go the other way or up the middle when it's called for.

Trumbo also runs the bases better than I expected. He looked good stealing a base on Opening Day, and has gone first to third on a single and scored from first on a double already in the young season, showing pretty decent speed and instincts.

Overall, he looks like a good addition to our offense.

I don't know about his defense yet. He was charged with an error yesterday, misplayed a ball off the wall at OPACY on Sunday (turning a single into a double, according to the radio account) and on Opening Day kind of gave up on a fly ball that hit pretty low off the fence in RCF that I thought he might have caught if he pursued it aggressively (though opinions on that were mixed). Overall, I've seen worse, but I think he's about as advertised out there.

Still, all things considered, I'm happy with Trumbo so far, and think he is a somewhat better rounded player than I'd realized.

Nice writeup and I agree.

Solid bat, and defense is probably decent/average and better than sub-par as some feared.

Agree w a lot of this.

He's a more controlled hitter than I thought. Though, it's 6 games. We'll see going forward.

He's more athletic than I thought. Which is nice, and probably not going to change.

However, his defense leaves a lot to be desired. He made two poor plays yesterday. Cost us some runs.

If he has a good year w the bat, he'll probably make up for it.

If he goes 250/300/450, I'm not so sure.

Nice writeup and I agree.

Solid bat, and defense is probably decent/average and better than sub-par as some feared.

You don't think his defense has been subpar so far?

I definitely do.

He's definitely more of a baseball player than just a masher. His defense hasn't been a problem and that's without Adam Jones out there covering ground and directing traffic. He's sneaky athletic.

I remember feeling pretty good about Travis Snider after the first week last year.

That said, he's no Adam Dunn out there, for sure.

You don't think his defense has been subpar so far?

I definitely do.

He's definitely more of a baseball player than just a masher. His defense hasn't been a problem and that's without Adam Jones out there covering ground and directing traffic. He's sneaky athletic.

Yeah, not great defensively, but surprising athleticism for his size makes up for some of the deficiencies. That one yesterday where he slid 30 feet from the wall was painful to watch, although I know wind was a factor.

You don't think his defense has been subpar so far?

I definitely do.

I do, too, though as CallMeBrooksie says, he's not Adam Dunn-level bad.

Agree w a lot of this.

He's a more controlled hitter than I thought. Though, it's 6 games. We'll see going forward.

He's more athletic than I thought. Which is nice, and probably not going to change.

However, his defense leaves a lot to be desired. He made two poor plays yesterday. Cost us some runs.

If he has a good year w the bat, he'll probably make up for it.

If he goes 250/300/450, I'm not so sure.

What about compared to our other COF options last season? Wouldn't the improvement/delta he provides at this level of production make him worth it?

Consider our COF options last season:

Steve Pearce .711 OPS (325 PA)

Gerrardo Parra .625 OPS (238 PA)

Travis Snider .659 OPS (236 PA)

Delmon Young .628 OPS (180 PA)

David Lough .555 OPS (144 PA)

Alejandro De Aza .636 OPS (112 PA)

Also, Trumbo's OPS by season:

2011 (LAA) - .768

2012 (LAA) - .808

2013 (LAA) - .747

2014 (ARI) - .707

2015 (ARI) - .805

2015 (SEA) - .735

Career - .760

Considering the move to the more offense friendly AL East, I think he should be expected to hit at least his career average line of .252/.302/.459/.760, which as shown above, would be a major improvement over the production we received from our COF w/ guys no longer on the team.

Before he came to the Orioles, I had a pretty stereotyped impression of Mark Trumbo: big power, lots of strikeouts, pull hitter, kind of lumbering, poor outfielder, serviceable 1B.

My impression after six game is a bit different. I've been pretty impressed with the fact that Trumbo does not try to hit every ball out of the ballpark and pull everything to LF. To the contrary, he has a relatively controlled swing and hits the ball where it's pitched. Yes, his swing seems a bit stiff and he's trying to do some damage, but overall he seems like he can adjust to what is being thrown and go the other way or up the middle when it's called for.

Trumbo also runs the bases better than I expected. He looked good stealing a base on Opening Day, and has gone first to third on a single and scored from first on a double already in the young season, showing pretty decent speed and instincts.

Overall, he looks like a good addition to our offense.

I don't know about his defense yet. He was charged with an error yesterday, misplayed a ball off the wall at OPACY on Sunday (turning a single into a double, according to the radio account) and on Opening Day kind of gave up on a fly ball that hit pretty low off the fence in RCF that I thought he might have caught if he pursued it aggressively (though opinions on that were mixed). Overall, I've seen worse, but I think he's about as advertised out there.

Still, all things considered, I'm happy with Trumbo so far, and think he is a somewhat better rounded player than I'd realized.

Nice post...generally agree with your thoughts on what we've seen so far.

Definitely agree the jury is still out on his defense, but in my view, the error yesterday was not his fault. For those that didn't see it, it was a high pop-up into some pretty tough wind that fell in essentially shallow left center. Neither Trumbo nor Rickard was particularly close at the outset, but I believe it ultimately should've been Rickard's ball - he didn't appear to get a great read off the bat, perhaps thinking it was a pop-up the IF could handle. Either way, Trumbo came flying in late trying to make a play, but I believe if Rickard had read it correctly and gone hard the whole way, he could've fairly easily caught the ball. The whole idea of anything a CF can get to, he should.

Obviously Rickard has been the man so far, but I think that misplay was more on him than Trumbo.

Trumbo has stupid power. He can hit it out to CF and RF with the best of them. That's probably his most impressive attribute.

Nice post...generally agree with your thoughts on what we've seen so far.

Definitely agree the jury is still out on his defense, but in my view, the error yesterday was not his fault. For those that didn't see it, it was a high pop-up into some pretty tough wind that fell in essentially shallow left center. Neither Trumbo nor Rickard was particularly close at the outset, but I believe it ultimately should've been Rickard's ball - he didn't appear to get a great read off the bat, perhaps thinking it was a pop-up the IF could handle. Either way, Trumbo came flying in late trying to make a play, but I believe if Rickard had read it correctly and gone hard the whole way, he could've fairly easily caught the ball. The whole idea of anything a CF can get to, he should.

Obviously Rickard has been the man so far, but I think that misplay was more on him than Trumbo.

Trumbo still should have made the play. He called everyone off and then had the ball clang off his glove. It wasn't all that difficult of a play. The play near the wall was brutal. The misplay at Camden was also pretty bad, and I agree with the take that an actual outfielder would have been able to make a play on the ball on opening day. He's also shown pretty poor range on a couple other plays in front of him that better outfielders may have made plays on. He's been bad out there, in my opinion. If he ends up closer to his career 109 wRC+ instead of the 187 he has put up so far, we are going to end up with a mediocre overall package, which is what should have been expected when he became a regular outfielder.

Trumbo still should have made the play. He called everyone off and then had the ball clang off his glove. It wasn't all that difficult of a play. The play near the wall was brutal. The misplay at Camden was also pretty bad, and I agree with the take that an actual outfielder would have been able to make a play on the ball on opening day. He's also shown pretty poor range on a couple other plays in front of him that better outfielders may have made plays on. He's been bad out there, in my opinion. If he ends up closer to his career 109 wRC+ instead of the 187 he has put up so far, we are going to end up with a mediocre overall package, which is what should have been expected when he became a regular outfielder.

That's fine, and I don't remember the specifics of his other exploits out there. All I'm saying is that if AJ had been in center yesterday, he would've taken charge, made the play, and we wouldn't be discussing it. Just part of being around less capable outfielders and knowing the role. Again, not a specific criticism of Rickard in his sixth MLB game, just is what it is.

I've loved the hitter I've seen so far too, but it's a small sample size that goes against the record of his 2,554 at-bats before this season. He is a career .252 BA / .302 OBP slugger who's hit the ball to the opposite field only 25.9% of the time as opposed to this season's 38.1%. His BABIP this season is .450 (career: .292). His K% this season is half his career figure (12% v. 24.7%).

Trumbo's looked so stable at the plate that one wonders if he's somehow managed to remake his approach, but it's much more likely that we're going to see a drastic regression, perhaps from sometime in June onwards--a period during which, historically speaking, he tends to hit significantly worse than in April and May.

You don't think his defense has been subpar so far?

I definitely do.

Well he isn't get best but I don't think he is terrible. IMO