The Angels are ranked first in the league in this valuable category the past 3 series

What the Angels pitching staff is doing of late is superb, and the starters and relievers performing the way they are is giving fans more hope for a playoff berth. The pitchers have rebounded in a major way and is looking more formidable here in June. The rotation and bullpen's ability to start pitches as strikes and run them out of the strike zone has been on full display during the team's last three series against the A's, Orioles and Yankees.

The Angels are ranked first in the league in this valuable category the past 3 series

Since June 9th, the Angels' 34.1% Chase% ranks first in all of baseball. The game against the Yankees last night, which included Kyle Hendricks, Reid Detmers and Hunter Strickland combining for 12 strikeouts, included the team's second best Chase% of the season...only trailing their game on June 15th against the Orioles. The game against the Yankees went way better than the one against the Orioles, as last night they pitched a shutout en route to a 4-0 victory whereas they allowed 11 runs against the O's when the staff posted a season-high 39.3% Chase%.

Hendricks has an astounding 43.6% Chase% in his last two starts, with a 12:2 K:BB and the lowest exit velocity of all the pitchers on the pitching staff. As Tyler Anderson's season is taking a turn for the worst, Hendricks has stepped up in a major way (similar to Travis d'Arnaud and Logan O'Hoppe). José Soriano posted his single best Chase% of his season during the Angels' first game against the Yankees on Monday. Since the Angels' series opener against the A's, the team's bullpen is tied with the Orioles' 'pen with the fourth highest Chase% in baseball -- highlighted by Kenley Jansen's 50% Chase%.

For the season, the Angels rank 27th in Chase% and are near or at the bottom of many pitching categories. However, in June the Halos pitchers rank third in Chase% (only trailing the Rangers and Yankees), have the 10th most strikeouts and the fifth lowest Line Drive%. The bullpen has a .193 batting average against in June, which ranks fifth in the sport -- a massive development for the unit that was the worst in baseball the first two months of the season.

The Angels have put together an optimal pitching staff. They have gone this entire season only using five starters, and that continuity means something in the modern age of baseball. By calling up Sam Bachman, getting the absolute best out of Detmers, weaponizing Strickland, Jansen doing his thing, and Ryan Zeferjahn and Brock Burke holding it down, the relievers have been able to get jobs done without Robert Stephenson and Ben Joyce who were supposed to be key contributors.

The pitchers have plenty of underlying metrics that do not bode well for the team, but the team might be able to get by relatively unscatched if they can keep getting hitters to swing at bad pitches like they have recently.

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