Shields visits the weight room

TEMPE, Ariz. -- A week and a half into spring training and the Angels are still getting used to the idea of Scot Shields in the weight room doing actual exercises, not just making social calls.

“The first day of camp we saw him doing some lat pull-downs,” pitcher John Lackey said. “Everyone in the weight room stopped and watched him.”

Shields, 32, has a wiry frame and a loose, resilient arm, a made-for-pitching body that has never required much weight-room work or maintenance.

But the setup man, motivated by what has become an annual summer swoon, decided this off-season that genes can only take him so far.

Shields began working out vigorously, adding a few pounds of muscle, and he plans to continue lifting during the regular season for the first time in his career.

“I really didn’t get after it in years past like I did this year,” Shields said. “I’m not saying I was in there being a bodybuilder or anything, but I was in there on a regular schedule and spent a lot more time in there. I feel stronger.”

Shields has been a workhorse, with a major league-high 361 2/3 relief innings pitched over the last three seasons, and he has been extremely effective for the most part.

But his 4.83 career earned-run average in August is more than a full run higher than his career ERA in any other month, and he had a horrific August last season, going 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in 12 games.

Shields was so ineffective he lost his setup role, and his frustrations boiled over on Sept. 4, when he was so miffed by his inability to find the plate during a simulated game that he heaved a ball from the back of the mound over the right-field wall.

“Every time I was out there I was giving up runs and hurting the team,” Shields said. “That’s kind of motivation.”

Not enough to alter his diet. Notorious for his junk-food addiction, Shields began one recent morning with a pre-workout meal of chicken fingers, French fries and a Pepsi, hardly the breakfast of champions. But at least he’s burning a few more of those calories in the weight room.

“I’m getting up there in age a little bit and trying to minimize and put away any bad stretches,” Shields said. “Hopefully this will help keep me strong the whole year.”

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According to the “Bill James Gold Mine 2008,” an annual collection of essays and analysis by the noted statistics guru, Vladimir Guerrero took only 139 pitches for a strike and swung at 616 pitches outside the strike zone last season.

“And 507 of them were line drives,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “So?”

Though the numbers seem extreme -- Guerrero played in 150 games, meaning he averaged a little less than one called strike a game and chased about four pitches outside the zone per game -- they don’t carry much weight in Scioscia’s book.

Guerrero has always been aggressive, and his approach has resulted in a .325 career average and 10 straight seasons with 25 home runs or more.

“I think if a guy is hitting .204 there are some things you could maybe take out of some statistical data,” Scioscia said. “I don’t think it’s enlightening us to anything that hasn’t been known about Vlad for the last 10 years.

“Strike zone is a relative term. Some guys -- Manny Sanguillen, Roberto Clemente, Yogi Berra -- the pitches they could handle maybe weren’t within the strike zone but were in their zone and they squared them up.”

In James’ defense, the author did write: “Would Guerrero be a better hitter if he tended to his strike zone? I doubt it. First, I don’t see how you can be much scarier, as a hitter, than Vladimir is. Second, part of what makes him great is his absolute conviction that he can hit anything. It’s not the way you teach a kid to play baseball, but it works for him.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com