Kernels' Trout hoping to swim quickly to big pond

CEDAR RAPIDS - And just think, the guy who's supposed to be their best player hasn't started hitting, yet.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels took their opening series of the Midwest League season Saturday afternoon with a 7-2 romp over Beloit before 1,417 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Kernels rebounded for back-to-back victories after being shut out over 10 innings in Thursday's season opener.

One of the most striking things - no pun intended - was Cedar Rapids generating offense without much of any production from leadoff hitter Mike Trout. If you don't know who Trout is, you haven't been playing much attention.

One of two No. 1 draft picks of the Los Angeles Angels on the Kernels' roster (fellow outfielder Randal Grichuk is the other), Trout wowed them big time in spring training, hitting five home runs the final week. That included taking Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Aaron Laffey deep in a major league spring training game.

“I saw a player who might have mastered three levels in spring training,” said Kernels hitting coach Brent Del Chiaro. “We saw a kid who was seeing the ball extremely well. I think we were able to see his talent kind of develop and start to play out a little bit. He's been working on his bunting game, kind of starting to get comfortable with that a little bit. Then he started putting the ball out of the yard, and we're going ‘Holy cow.'”

A 6-foot-1, 217-pound right-handed hitter with good speed, Trout got into a couple of spring training games with the big league Angels, picking up two doubles and a triple as well.

There's a reason Baseball America has the 18-year-old from Millville, N.J., ranked among the top 50 minor league prospects.

“That was amazing,” Trout said of playing with major leaguers. “Best players in the world. I can't really compare to them, yet. Just tried to go out there and show them what I had. Now I want to come to Cedar Rapids and have a good year.”

With the glowing scouting reports, he'll likely have one, though his first three games haven't been stellar at the plate. Trout went 0-for-4 with a walk Saturday and is 1-for-13 overall, with that one hit of the broken-bat, infield variety.

But there's no panic in this kid, according to Kernels Manager Bill Mosiello. His makeup is one of his biggest strengths.

“His maturity, that's what separates him,” Mosiello said. “Even when he has failure, he's a pretty mentally tough guy. He doesn't show a lot of emotion. You wouldn't really know if he was hitting .500 or .100. That's a good trait in this game.”

The Kernels got three hits from Matt Long and two from Jean Segura in Saturday's win. Starting pitcher Patrick Corbin went the first six innings for victory, allowing five hits and a run.

Cedar Rapids has a three-game series beginning today at

Quad City.