A pitching great from the past is open to providing guidance to Angels pitchers

It's been a long time since the Angels have developed a home-grown ace, but now one of the last to grace the mound at the Big A is open to the idea of helping the next generations of Halo hurlers reach their full potential.

From 2006 until 2016, Jered Weaver was a fixture in the Angels' rotation. The lanky right-hander was an Angels workhorse, earning three All-Star selections in his career while leading the league in wins twice. Now, he's ready to help out his former ball club should his phone ring.

The Angels would be wise to take him up on his offer. In addition to being a workhorse -- Weaver topped the 200-inning plateau four times in his 12-year career -- he was also a master at the art of pitching.

Despite his six-foot-seven frame, velocity was never Weaver's game. Rarely topping 90 miles per hour on the radar gun, the fan-favorite relied on deception and movement to generate outs. Whether it was his herky-jerky delivery, or his five pitch mix that featured a variety of breaking balls, he excelled at keeping hitters off-balance and looking foolish.

Weaver has served as a special instructor for the Angels before

During the offseason, Weaver was one of a handful of Angels from the past to share their insights during the instructional league. While he currently has no plans to take on any sort of full-time role, he enjoyed the experience enough that he's willing to do it again.

The Halos have an impressive collection of young arms, from promising starters like Jose Soriano and Jack Kochanowicz, to starters-turned-relievers Reid Detmers and Ian Anderson, and to top prospects like Caden Dana and George Klassen, among many others.

The raw stuff present among that group is enough to make the soft-tossing Weaver blush, but any of those power arms would be lucky to have Weaver's encyclopedia-like knowledge of how to fool hitters.

So far, most of the wisdom he's shared has been about recovery and preparation between starts, but a cerebral magician like Weaver could teach a young staff a whole lot more -- from optimizing pitch movement, to using one pitch to set up the next, to the value of changing eye-level and location, and much more, Weaver's wisdom could unlock even more potential amongst the young talents.

Ron Washington and company should take note. Even if it's just a couple of times a year, bringing in Weaver to pair with pitching coach Barry Enright, assistant pitching coach Sal Fasano, and the Weaver-esque veteran leader Kyle Hendricks could be a huge boon for the pitching staff.

Who knows, maybe in the future the itch to be around baseball every day will once again strike Weaver, and a more permanent coaching role could be in the cards down the road. For now, the Angels should take whatever pearls of wisdom they can get.

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