This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger's Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
TEMPE, Ariz. -- As Angels players have started to arrive to Spring Training over the last few weeks, they’ve been treated to the newly completed player development center that includes a renovated clubhouse, pitching lab, hitting lab, weight room, training room, agility field, kitchen, dining area and more.
With the combined efforts of the Angels and the city of Tempe, the former Minor League complex was recreated into a new 46,000-square-foot development center that’s double the size of the former complex. It also features new locker rooms for the coaches, a video room, a women’s locker room, a coaches’ workroom, an athletic training room, medical exam rooms, a hydrotherapy room, new offices for coaches and staff members and the latest technology and video equipment for their hitting and pitching labs.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian believes it’ll be huge for the organization because it’ll benefit the players and the front office thanks to the improved amenities and the data the new labs will provide. It also has enough space to move workouts and baseball activities indoors because of the weather.
“This place looks awesome, it’s state of the art,” Minasian said. “It was really cool seeing all the guys walk in that have been here in the past and their faces just lit up. It's exciting, but at the end of the day, it's baseball. You need a place to eat, need some fields to work on, a batting cage, a weight room. We have all those things. And we're really, really excited with how the complex turned out.”
The upgrades will be utilized all year, as once Spring Training is over, Angels Minor Leaguers will take over the complex and be able to use it as part of their development. Currently, Minor Leaguers train in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the Giants’ former Minor League facility, and more upgrades are expected to eventually come to the main stadium at Tempe Diablo Stadium. The two sides extended their agreement through 2035.
“I think it really helps,” Minasian said. “Just having the opportunity to develop players here. This is not a six-week facility, right? We're going to use this facility all year long with our younger players, and we'll have instructs [instructional league] here and all those things. So to have the tools we have at our disposal now with how we're set up, I think it's going to be very beneficial.”
Veteran Kyle Hendricks is a new face on the club so he hadn’t seen much of the old facility but came away impressed by the new digs. He said the additions of the hitting and pitching labs will be key for players and coaches because so much data can now be tracked. For pitchers, just about everything can be analyzed such as their full-body motion and grips on their pitches as well as the movement, spin rates and velocity of their pitches. And for hitters, they can better evaluate things such as their swing paths, bat speed and weight distribution.
“It can only make you better,” Hendricks said. “It's part of the game. You're not seeing it go anywhere. It makes guys better. Just depends how you use it. So for me, consistency is always No. 1, staying consistent, being that same guy. So having these numbers to back up what your stuff is looking like, how it's presenting to the hitter, it can only make that consistency easier.”
Flamethrower Ben Joyce said he’s equally excited about what the pitching lab can do for the organization. He added a new pitch on the fly last year during the season that elevated his game, his two-seamer or splinker, so he understands how having that data can be helpful for pitchers looking to improve or modify their arsenal.
“It’s just kind of the way that the game is headed now,” Joyce said. “It helps your pitch development, just to see where you're at and be able to do those kind of tuneups. It’s awesome. I’m not the biggest analytics guy, but I feel like it can help others and still help me. It’s just cool that they are putting the money into that stuff.”