Angels News: Halos Aren't a Stealing Bases Team
The 2023 MLB season is one that is already going down in the history and also shaping up the league for decades to come. We are all watching the game of baseball change in various ways due to the new rules that have been implemented.
It's been an adjustment period for sure. We've seen many violations, some ejections, and most notably, many more stolen bases. The Athletic's Sam Blum took a deep-dive into how teams are blowing last year's base-stealing rates through the roof in just these first couple of weeks of the season. The pitch clock makes it hard for pitchers to think about a runner sneaking to the next spot and larger bases gives the runner a bigger, easier target.
However, the Angels have not been following the trend. Their bread and butter does not fall in this and team manager Phil Nevin touched on exactly why that is the case.
“We’re not really constructed to steal bases and move guys over,” said Nevin. “We will do that. We’ll play winning baseball. But we’d like to hit them in the seats. But if we need to manufacture and steal a base here or there, we certainly will. But the times that it will call for it are probably a little less than other teams."
(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)
This does make a lot of sense considering that Angels superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout find themselves on bases a lot more than the rest of their teammates. It would not make a lot of sense to consistently have your two most consistent forms of offense always stealing, especially with Trout's injury history.
That's not even to mention that Ohtani is a starting pitcher for them. It may work for other squads but the Halos probably won't cave in any time soon.
