There may be no better analogy for what has happened to the Los Angeles Angels in the last month and a half than what has happened to pitcher Reid Detmers.
The Angels sent Detmers to Triple-A on Wednesday, roughly six weeks after the rookie threw a no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays. Interim manager Phil Nevin said Detmers was struggling with his confidence, and the Angels wanted to get him out of the spotlight and help him rebuild it in the minors.
On May 10, Detmers threw a no-hitter in what was just his 11th MLB start. Though Detmers did seem to get some help from the official scorer during the game, he walked just one and threw 68 of his 108 pitches for strikes.
The results for Detmers have been poor since that outing. In six starts since the no-hitter, Detmers has gone 0-2 with a 5.67 ERA. He allowed 17 runs in 27 innings, including eight home runs over that span. With numbers like those, the decision to send Detmers down is understandable.
Detmers is just 22, so the Angels rightly continue to harbor high hopes for him in the future as he develops. He’s far from the only Angels player to struggle over the last month. That is why Joe Maddon does not have a job anymore.
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