The Angels hope that their pitchers improve by being more aware of the game/plate appearance situation:

“The one thing that bothered me the most was the critical moments,” Maddon said of the Angels pitching struggles last season. “Two-out RBIs and two-strike pitches that I want us to get better at sequencing or knowing what to do to put people away. I didn’t think we were very good at that last year.”

It is an area Maddon has emphasized this offseason, from weekly offseason Zoom calls with his coaching staff to the early message he sent to his players in camp. He insists it’s a “doable” adjustment reliant upon better pitch calling and game management — an example of how making marginal enhancements could help the Angels maximize the talent he sees in their staff.

LATimes.com

Since Mike Trout‘s first full season in 2012, the Angels are last in the American League in terms of team pitching fWAR. Their ERA stands in the middle of the road, but they play in a park that tends to help pitchers. When a staff is that poor for so long, it makes me wonder if the sequences are really the problem or the actual execution of those situational pitches.

Maddon brings a positive message to his staff to keep the pressure off them. My guess is that the the Angels need to do a better job of avoiding injuries that calling the right pitch.