With the offseason winding down, teams will start preparing more heavily for regular season games. They might let their starters pitch more innings and the lineups might more resemble an average game.
For the Angels, it looks like they will be using the final few spring training games to prepare for situational baseball.
Angels manager Ron Washington recently spoke with the media, telling them the team would emphasize base path running and situational hitting,
I’m going to start putting on more signs, start trying to execute things. You might all of the sudden see more hit and runs. You might start seeing more squeezes.
Amidst the many troubles surrounding this team in 2023, base running ranked highly among them. The Angels were 29th in stolen bases last year and 26th in stolen base attempts.
They did not take advantage of the new rule increasing the size of the base paths last year. It seems like the new coaching staff wants to try and improve on those numbers with this young team.
The Atlanta Braves, Washington's former team, ranked 10th last year in stolen bases with 132. Ronald Acuña Jr. accounted for over half of those though with 73 on his way to a National League MVP.
Still, the Braves were the best team in 2023 when it came to taking an extra base at 51% - getting to second on a double or third on a triple. The Angels, on the other hand, were 28th in that category at 38%.
It seems that Washington wants to bring these tendencies over with him. With such a young team, it could be an area of great improvement in 2024.
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