Brandon Wood looks for improvement after off-season work

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz. —  There was no hidden agenda, no attempt to circumnavigate his supervisors, Angels infielder Brandon Wood said.

It was a simple phone call for some advice from a hitting coach he developed a relationship with last season, one who lives near his home in the Phoenix area.

The fact that the coach was Kevin Long, batting instructor for the New York Yankees, and not Mickey Hatcher, batting instructor for the Angels, does not matter.

Long helped Wood make an adjustment to shorten his swing, and Wood hopes it will help him rebound from a disastrous 2010 season, when he hit .146 with four home runs and 14 runs batted in and lost his third base job in July.

“He’s an Arizona guy who gave me some encouragement last year, who I got to know through small talk, and I wanted to hear his philosophy on hitting,” Wood said of Long. “Hitting is like golf. How many ways can you do it and be successful? There’s a lot of different ways; you have to find the one that works for you.”

Wood, who was in camp for the Angels’ first full-squad workout Saturday but is slowed by a minor back injury, incorporated Long’s suggestions in his winter workouts and said he feels more confident in his swing.

“I don’t think you’ll see much of a difference; it’s just getting back a little bit, shortening it up, keeping it compact and strong, being able to get to inside pitches correctly,” said Wood, who had 71 strikeouts and six walks in 226 at-bats last season.

“I feel like I can take three bad swings in the cage and know what to do to fix it. That’s what makes people great, like Torii [Hunter], Vernon [Wells], Bobby [Abreu]. They know their swings. Once you learn your swing, you can take off at this level.”

Hatcher, beginning his 12th year with the Angels, did not feel threatened by Wood’s desire to seek outside counsel.

“I’ve always left it open with these guys to get ideas from other people — I did when I played,” Hatcher said. “But I want to know about that when they come to me, to make sure I understand what they’re trying to do. I want to make sure I’m on the same page with them because I’m not here to mess them up more.”

It’s important, Hatcher said, for Wood to talk with him about his work with Long. As of Saturday morning, that conversation had not taken place.

“He hasn’t talked to me about it, but I haven’t had a chance to get in the cage with him,” Hatcher said. “That’s the first question, what did you do in the off-season, who did you work with?

“There are a lot of good hitting people. Wherever they’re going to hit, there’s always going to be a hitting coach that wants to coach them. That’s not going to create anything bad.”

Short hops

Kendry Morales, recovering from a broken left leg, took ground balls and participated in fielding drills for the first time in camp. … Pitching coach Mike Butcher, recovering from surgery to have his thyroid removed after a cancerous growth was found on his neck, was a full-practice participant Friday and Saturday.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com