TEMPE, Ariz. — Some philosophies of pitching are so obvious that it’s easy to take them for granted.
The Angels are trying to change that.
One of the major points of emphasis for Angels pitchers this spring has been the most fundamental skill, something that every kid is told the first time he steps on a mound.
Throw the ball over the plate.
“It sounds like Baseball 101,” Angels first-year pitching coach Barry Enright said. “Even in our messaging early on, I said this is Little League baseball, something we were taught throughout our entire lives. It’s just kind of more of a reminder. We want to make it a staple.”
Veteran left-hander Tyler Anderson concedes that there’s nothing revolutionary about pitchers throwing strikes. The difference?
“Now we’re talking about it,” Anderson said.
Adds left-hander Patrick Sandoval: “I think it’s just something that gets forgotten. It’s so obvious: you want to throw strikes. Sometimes you forget to talk about it. You talk about your delivery or pitch sequencing or whatever it may be. I think it’s just having the constant reminder, kind of a mantra: Let’s get strike one.”
The idea was borne out of Enright’s preparation for his interview for this job. He was studying the data from the 2023 Angels pitching staff to figure out what went wrong.
He saw that the Angels were fifth in the majors in whiff percentage, which indicated the pitchers had plenty of raw stuff to get the job done.
The problems were too many of those whiffs were coming when the pitchers were behind in the count, so they still weren’t finishing off hitters. They still had more pitches to throw, and eventually they would give up a hit.
Even worse, they’d issue a walk.
Angels pitchers were 28th in the majors in walks per nine innings. They were 22nd in first-pitch strikes. They were 20th in pitches per plate appearance.
All of that leads to bad outcomes. The more pitches a pitcher throws, the sooner he has to come out…
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