Angels outfielder Mike Trout won't play in World Baseball Classic

Mike Trout is all smiles after making a leaping catch at the wall to rob Detroit's Prince Fielder of a home run and record the final out of the Angels' 6-1 victory in September. (Jeff Gross / Getty Images / September 8, 2012)

By Mike DiGiovanna

January 12, 2013, 2:40 p.m.

Angels center fielder Mike Trout has informed tournament organizers that he will not play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic in March, Trout?s agent, Craig Landis, said Saturday.

Trout, no doubt, would have been a huge coup for the WBC -- the 21-year-old was a unanimous selection for the American League rookie of the year and finished second in the MVP vote after hitting .326 with a .399 on-base percentage, .564 slugging percentage, 30 home runs, 83 runs batted in and 49 stolen bases.

Trout was among the game?s top defensive players, leaping over the wall to rob opponents of four would-be homers, including a spectacular catch high above the wall in Baltimore?s Camden Yards last May.

But Landis said that Trout ?just wanted a regular spring-training preparation,? so he opted to inform WBC officials before a formal invitation to play for the team was even extended to him.

New Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton, the former Texas Rangers star who signed a five-year, $125-million deal with the team in December, will not play in the WBC as well.

ALSO:

Lance Armstrong to admit to doping, reports say

One streak will end for Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning

Watch Blake Griffin and Chris Paul crack jokes with Jimmy Kimmel

Comments are filtered for language and registration is required. The Times makes no guarantee of comments' factual accuracy. Readers may report inappropriate comments by clicking the Report Abuse link next to a comment. Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form. '; shareDiv.innerHTML = templateHTML; /* append the new div to the end of the document, which is hidden already with CSS */ document.body.appendChild(shareDiv); /* Store the div in both a regular JavaScript variable and as a jQuery object so we can reference them faster later */ var shareTip = document.getElementById('shareTip'), $shareTip = $('#shareTip'); /* This extends our settings object with any user-defined settings passed to the function and returns the jQuery object shareTip was called on */ return this.each(function() { if (options) { $.extend(settings, options); } /* This is a hack to make sure the shareTip always fades back to 100% opacity */ var checkOpacity = function (){ if ( $shareTip.css('opacity') !== 1 ){ $shareTip.css({'opacity': 1}); } }; /* Function that replaces the HTML in the shareTip with the template we defined at the top */ /* It will wipe/reset the links on the social media buttons each time the function is called */ var removeLinks = function (){ shareTip.innerHTML = templateHTML; }; /* This is the function that makes the links for the Tweet / Share functionality */ var makeURLS = function (link, message){ /* Here we construct the Tweet URL using an array, with values passed to the function */ var tweetConstruct = [ 'http://twitter.com/share?url=', link, '&text=', message, '&via=', settings.twitter_account ], /* Then join the array into one chunk of HTML */ tweetURL = tweetConstruct.join(''), /* Same story for Facebook */ fbConstruct = [ 'http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=', link, '&src=sp' ], fbURL = fbConstruct.join(''), newHTML = [ '' ], shareHTML = newHTML.join(''); /* Load in our new HTML */ shareTip.innerHTML = shareHTML; }; /* Since the shareTip will automatically fade out when the user mouses out of an element */ /* we have to specifically tell the shareTip we want it to stay put when the user mouses over it */ /* This effectively gives the user a 500 ms (or whatever) window to mouse */ /* from the element to the shareTip to prevent it from popping out */ $shareTip.hover(function(){ $shareTip.stop(true, true); $shareTip.show(); checkOpacity(); }, function(){ $(this).fadeOut(settings.speed); }); /* This function handles the hover action */ $(this).hover(function(){ /* remove the old links, so someone doesn't accidentally click on them */ removeLinks(); /* If there's already an animation running on the shareTip, stop it */ $shareTip.stop(true, true); var eso = $(this), message, /* Store the width and height of the shareTip and the offset of the element for our calculations */ height = eso.height(), width = eso.width(), offset = eso.offset(), link; link = eso.children('a').attr('href'); message = escape( eso.find('img').attr('alt') ) || eso.attr(settings.message_attr); if (link.search('http://') === -1){ link = 'http://www.latimes.com' + link; } link = encodeURIComponent(link); /* If it's at the top of the page, the shareTip will pop under the element */ if (offset.top

Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-angels-mike-trout-world-baseball-classic-20130112,0,6722106.story?track=rss

Yash Chopra George McGovern braxton miller braxton miller Whitney Heichel Tippi Hedren Big Tex