Angels' new pitching coaches wasted no time changing the results

It didn’t take John Mozeliak too long to decide the pitching staff needed a shakeup, and nobody could argue he was wrong. When the Angels fired Mike Maddux, Darryl Scott, and Dom Chiti on August 11, they had the seventh-worst ERA in baseball and, not coincidentally, the highest walk rate. That’s not a small sample, but it was interesting that the lack of use of available technology was the reason. Whatever the reason, three coaches lost their jobs. 

Tim Leveque and Michael Wuertz got thrown to the fire. They were asked to take over a pitching staff with a few weeks left in the season and try to put their fingerprints on it before the winter. Small sample, yes, but through three games the early returns look immediately different.

Four earned runs allowed across three full games against the Rangers is nothing to sneeze at. The Rangers offense isn’t great, but they have legitimate big league hitters up and down their lineup. And, really, who cares who they faced because this is the same staff that couldn’t find the zone under the old regime and suddenly they’re throwing strikes and getting strikeouts. 

Angels suddenly seeing results after completely overhauling pitching staff

The headline act in the finale was Walbert Ureña, who threw six shutout innings with just two hits allowed and two walks. His ERA is now down to 2.67 over 107.2 innings. That’s the second-best mark among rookies with at least 60 innings pitched. When your opponent is Jacob deGrom, and you pitch well enough to turn a game into a laugher against him, it’s worth noting. The Angels’ offense and deGrom leaving with an injury played a role, but Ureña played his part too.

Context matters. As mentioned, the Rangers offense isn’t great. They rank 25th in baseball in runs scored heading into the weekend. They have the 11th-most games in baseball scoring three runs or fewer. This isn’t the ‘27 Yankees or the ‘99 Indians or anything like that. And three games is three games. Any staff can put together a solid three games against a team that’s struggled to score. 

But the caveat only goes so far. For one, they hadn’t shut down bad offenses this season. They allowed 29 runs in a three-game series against the Royals earlier this year. They gave up 24 runs in four games to a battered A’s lineup in June. The Mariners scored 15 in three games against them. This very Rangers team scored 16 in a three-game set last month. So to allow four runs over the last three of this series (and eight overall in the four games) is noteworthy.

And they were doing it with a completely different approach. Fewer walks means fewer free baserunners, which means fewer chances for a subpar offense to find a way to hurt you. That’s exactly the discipline that the previous staff couldn’t manufacture no matter who was out there. We saw some repertoire changes with Ryan Johnson throwing far fewer sinkers and featuring his sweeper more. George Klassen eliminated his curve entirely and threw more sliders. 

Mozeliak made it clear when he made the change that the front office didn’t think they were getting as much out of their pitchers as they could have with technology and data, and that puts everyone on the hot seat. Three games don’t yet prove the theory correct, but it’s the kind of early evidence that makes you want to see more. 

It’s also worth noting just how big this actually was. Firing three coaches at once in the middle of August is way more than a tweak. The front office admitted the plan wasn’t working and bet that a fresh voice could get more out of the arms. The wins and losses don’t matter for this team, but that’s still a pretty big gamble that has a chance to look foolish at the end of the year. 

With about as small a sample as possible (but also the only possible sample), the pitchers are throwing strikes, the bullpen isn’t giving up runs, and the Angels just took a series from a team that had done very little but beat them recently. None of that erases a lost season, but if this staff keeps pounding the zone, at least it’ll be more enjoyable to watch. And the conversation around this pitching staff could change a lot faster than anyone expected a week ago.

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