Angels scout responsible for Mike Trout let go from team
Greg Morhardt, one of several baseball scouts centrally involved in the Los Angeles Angels' prophetic selection of Mike Trout late in the first round of the 2009 draft, has been told his contract with the team will not be renewed, according to CBSSports' Jon Heyman.
Morhardt will be the second scout linked to Trout the Angels have let go. The team fired then-scouting director Eddie Bane in 2010. Bane and Morhardt contributed to the Angels' strong 2009 draft class, which included current major league players such as Garrett Richards and Kole Calhoun. With two weeks left in the 2014 season, the Angels have baseball's best record.
The Angels declined to comment on the decision let Morhardt go, according to Heyman.
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Morhardt, a scout at the time in Trout's native New Jersey, raised eyebrows in the scouting community when he gave Trout an extremely uncommon '72' rating, a grade Baseball America likened to predicting Trout would end up in the Hall of Fame.
Morhardt's insistence on rating Trout, the draft's 25th overall selection, second only to Stephen Strasburg on the team's draft board turned out to be prescient: The 23-year-old is already a three-time All-Star and is the youngest player in major league history to have 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a season. Trout signed a six-year, $144 million deal with the Angels earlier this year.
- Will Green
