Ron Washington's quote about the Angels' game planning is aging like milk

Angels hitters were on a torrid stretch the first twelve games of the 2025 season, then hit a wall seemingly out of nowhere. Well, fans might be able to pinpoint the exact reason for what happened to cause their massive slump the past seven games-- their manager has reportedly cracked down on his coaches game planning methods and the amount of information that is being divulged to the players pre-game. Ron Washington proudly announced to the media that he dialed back the scouting information that was provided to his hitters while his team can not hit water if they fell out of a boat.

Go ahead and judge this quote for yourself. Per Jeff Fletcher of The OC Register:

"There’s so much information now in baseball. Sometimes you let that information dictate how you go up there and have your at-bats. You’ve got to know which type of at-bats you’re capable of having to have those at-bats, and add that information to it, instead of allowing that information to dictate how you go about your business. I think with all this information, sometimes these kids totally believe in it 100%, so they don’t ever believe in themselves."

Ron Washington

Blaming information in the age of baseball that is quite literally called "The Information Age" is a new low for Washington. Washington is treating his hitters like minor leaguers who do not know how to go about their business. Does he actually not believe that his hitters should not have a full-scope of what they might encounter in a game? Before the Angels even start their games, they are at a massive strategic disadvantage because of him!

The optics of Washington cracking down on their game planning meetings are horrible. His team just had a 20 inning scoreless streak, for goodness sake! Before his information ban, the Angels led the league in HR%! Why did he feel like he had to make a drastic change when things were working? This makes no sense. This is yet another reminder that the Angels are so far behind the rest of the league it's not even funny. Teams zig, so the Angels zag.

Washington is in the last year of his contract, and it really does feel like this quote can easily be pointed to as the reason why the organization will not bring him back. Cutting down on information, leading to the lineup flying blind, striking out constantly, and not drawing walks or scoring runs is as bad as it gets from a coaching perspective. Washington is the old man yelling at clouds -- his lineup was doing incredibly well in a manner he did not care for, so he changed how they did things. Utterly ridiculous.

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