OC Register: Angels’ Tyler Anderson hopes pitching philosophy sparks turnaround

AngelsWin.com · February 28

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tyler Anderson wants to return to his philosophy of pitching this year.

“My whole life has been trying to make good pitches, not make my pitches good,” Anderson said.

The catchy phrase refers to the difference between thinking about how a pitch works against a certain hitter in a certain game situation, and simply measuring the velocity or the break or the spin of the baseball.

As Anderson looks to rebound from the worst year of his career, he said one of the points of emphasis is not to chase Trackman numbers.

“Less chasing stuff, which I felt was the M.O. last year, as opposed to pitching, which is what I like,” Anderson said.

Anderson, who was set to make his first start of the spring Tuesday afternoon, said so far he’s enjoying the new organizational approach. The Angels have a new pitching coach (Barry Enright) and a new bullpen coach (Steve Karsay). New run prevention coordinator Alex Cultice helps develop the overall pitch-calling strategy.

Whether all of that helps turn around Anderson remains to be seen.

Certainly, the 34-year-old left-hander had more going wrong last season than the guidance he was getting from the organization.

“Every year in the offseason, I’m kind of battling stuff and then right around the time spring came I’d start feeling good,” Anderson said. “Last year I never really got there.”

Anderson said it wasn’t fatigue or pain.

“I knew what I needed to do and I felt like I couldn’t get my body in position to do it,” he said. “Like my hips were too tight or there was some kind of block where I’m trying to make this fix over and over. It’s like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. It doesn’t fit. The whole year I was fighting myself trying to make adjustments that physically I wasn’t really capable of making.”

Anderson said he felt his velocity dropping and worked hard to improve it, but it was futile.

“Coming into spring last year, I felt like I just couldn’t get any velo going,” Anderson said. “That’s probably because if you’re in the right positions, your body kind of naturally creates those levers to throw harder. If you’re trying to force it, you kind of lose command. Chasing a mile an hour for me, going from 89 to 90 or 90 to 91 or 92 is probably not that beneficial.

“If I’m gonna go from 90 to 97, it’s probably OK to chase that and lose command, but to try as hard as I can to throw one mile an hour harder with literally 110% of effort every single time? I’m sacrificing command. For me, that’s not where it’s at.”

The result was a 5.43 ERA in 25 starts, covering 141 innings. It was not what the Angels expected when they signed Anderson to a three-year, $39 million deal in November 2022.

Anderson was coming off an All-Star season in which he’d posted a 2.57 ERA with the Dodgers in 2022. The Angels weren’t expecting that either, or they’d have been paying him $30 million a year instead of $13 million.

Anderson’s career ERA heading into 2023 was 4.16, and if Anderson would have just done that last year, he’d have delivered what the Angels needed.

Going into 2024, Anderson said if he can get to something in between 2022 and 2023, those would be “like my normal numbers.”

Manager Ron Washington, who wasn’t around for Anderson’s 2023 nightmare, said he’s willing to write it off as an outlier season. He said he “loves” Anderson’s attitude.

“He had a chance to go through that bad spell,” Washington said. “Now he has a chance to go through a good spell. You play this game long enough, you’re going to have bad spells. No one plays this game consistently all the time. You’re gonna have those periods and then you find out what you’re made of. We know what he’s made of.

“He’s a gamer, man. Maybe some things he wasn’t doing that he should have done. He had a chance to deal with that over the winter. Come back in here and make sure that he goes about his business to make certain that he gets back to where he is.”

NOTES

Right-hander Robert Stephenson (sore shoulder) was cleared to begin some light throwing. Stephenson has not yet pitched in a Cactus League game. …

Infielders Michael Stefanic (strained quad) and Luis Rengifo (hamstring) were both cleared to resume baseball workouts. …

First baseman Evan White (hip soreness) also returned to action after being slowed for several days. White has dealt with hip issues for years, and he was finally feeling 100% as he began his first spring training with the Angels. He felt a tweak last week and took some time to let it subside. “It was a little tight last week and I think the biggest thing now is we’ve waited to long to get back to playing that we’re doing the right thing by taking it slow and putting myself in the best position to not just be healthy, but to stay on the field for the whole season,” White said. …

Taylor Ward led off the first inning with a double Tuesday, but Washington wanted him to go for the triple, which is another indication of how he’s pushing the Angels to not be conservative on the bases. The rule of thumb is never to make the first out at third base, but Washington believed that Ward would have been comfortably safe. “You don’t force third, but if the play predicts you can get to third, don’t think about ‘I’m the leadoff guy and there’s nobody out so I’m going to stop at second,’” Washington said.

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