Dino Ebel on Positioning Angels in the Outfield

One of Dino Ebel’s responsibilities as Mike Scioscia’s bench coach is positioning the outfielders. It’s a data-driven task. Ebel — now in his 12th season with the Angels — relies heavily on information provided by the front office and scouting staff. When you see Kole Calhoun move in several steps or Mike Trout shifting into the opposite-field gap, you can be sure it was done with probability in mind.

Ebel explained what goes into positioning the Anaheim outfield prior to a recent game at Fenway Park.

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Ebel on positioning the outfield: “We look at spray charts and who is pitching. We look at the last 150 at-bats to the last 1,000 at-bats, or whatever it is they give us. Our front office provides us with a lot of data and we put it all together. We have an in-house guy who does the dots.

“We’ll play some guys deeper, but we won’t that do as an overall strategy. If a guy is a shallow-type hitter, we’re going to play him shallow and make him beat us over our heads. We factor in who is pitching that night — high velocity, low velocity, a lot of sliders or sinkers — and position our outfielders accordingly.

“Jered Weaver and Hector Santiago give up a lot of fly balls. Andrew Heaney does, as well. But when those guys are pitching, we don’t say, ‘Play near the warning track because more fly balls are going to be hit.’ There might be some guys who hit the ball deeper, but we go strictly by the information we have. That’s how we’ve done it the five or six years I’ve been doing it. Now Ron Roenicke and I are doing it together.

“We have guys who can go back on balls. Mike Trout covers a lot of ground. Kole Calhoun, Craig Gentry, Shane Robinson, Rafael Ortega… these guys can run. Calhoun probably plays a little bit deeper than normal — he feels comfortable there — but he’s also good coming in on the ball.

“Late in the game, when Huston Street is throwing that slider down and away, we’ll bring [Calhoun] in a little. We don’t play him deep. We bring him in and move him over, because most of the time right-handed hitters are going to hit the ball short to right field. For each pitcher who goes to that mound, we have information where hitters are most likely to hit the ball.

“We’ll move outfielders depending on the count. A lot of it is pull counts and oppo counts with two strikes. Mike is the type of manager who hardly ever likes to play ‘nothing over our heads.’ With counts, we play more pull and oppo when we’re moving our outfielders.

“Usually, the only time you’ll see Mike go with ‘nothing over our heads’ is the ninth inning with two outs and a runner on first base. He likes to prevent base hits. More often than not, what’s going to beat you is the base hit — the pop up that falls in front of you — as opposed to a ball over your head.

“A lot of managers play ‘no doubles’ and you’ll see routine ground balls go through the six-hole. Because they didn’t want to get beat on a double — they played their third baseman near the line — the other team has runner on first. If that guy can run, or if they pinch run for him, it turns into a double anyway. Of course, if the chart shows that this guy pulls the ball down the line off this pitcher, or off this type of pitcher, then you move the third baseman over.

“Managers obviously play ‘no doubles’ in the outfield as well. They move the outfield back with the corners on the lines. They’re basically saying ‘beat us with three hits’ and I get that. But for me, if the chart doesn’t show that, why do it?

“I’m a firm believer — I did it when I managed in the minor leagues, and I’ve done it when Mike has gotten thrown out and I take over the game — that you play the percentages. I look at the hitter, I look at who’s pitching, and if the chart shows that a guy doesn’t go down that line, I’m not going to play the line, even if we’re winning 1-0 and it’s the ninth inning. I might get beat, but if the numbers show one ball out of 30 chances going down the line, I’d rather take my chances with the 29.

“Say we’re playing David Ortiz oppo with two strikes, because the data shows he doesn’t pull many balls down the right-field line with two strikes. Our pitcher makes a mistake and he does pull it down the line. The worst it’s going to be is a double, because Big Papi probably isn’t going hit a triple. The hitter and the ballpark play into how you position. as well.

“If someone hits the ball away from where we’ve positioned an outfielder, and I have to answer to it, I’ll answer to it. I’m not going to make decisions by, ‘Oh man, what if.’ I’m going to make those decisions by the data. Look at all the information we’re getting. Billy [Eppler] and his analytics people give us all of this information, and it’s great stuff. Why wouldn’t we use it?”