Angels Will Showcase Big Trade Piece Against Tigers Tonight

The Los Angeles Angels will start the second half of the season with a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers in Anaheim, but the focus of this series won’t be on the results of the games. Both teams have trade pieces to showcase, and the Angels will get the ball rolling in their process when they send Reid Detmers to the mound against Troy Melton of the Tigers. 

Detmers is considered one of the big pitching prizes at the deadline, along with Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and Freddy Peralta of the New York Mets. Skubal will go tomorrow in the middle game, so all eyes will be on Detmers in this one. 

Detmers is a bit of a wild card as a trade acquisition, and being on the market does seem to have affected him lately. He’s given up five runs each in three of his last four starts, so he’ll be looking to get back on track given that he had a strong run before that. 

The number to watch with Detmers is usually his walk total. When he throws strikes and commands the zone he can be virtually unhittable, but most of his bad starts have been defined by a high number of walks. 

Melton might seem like an afterthought in this matchup, but he’s quiety putting together some impressive numbers in his first season as a full-time starter. The 25-year old right-hander has a 1.82 ERA in eight outings to go with a 5-1 record, and he’s given up just two earned runs in his last four starts while going at least five innings in each one. 

No one quite knows what the Angels offense is going to look like. The Halos will be getting Mike Trout back full-time, which should help, but the Angels still have something of a feast-or-famine offense, and when famine hits their pitchers quickly get starved for runs. 

Most of the focus in Anaheim has been on the trade candidates, and the other question is how far the Angels will go in their upcoming sell-off with interim GM John Mozeliak at the helm as he searches for a successor to Perry Minasian.  

The Tigers are nominal contenders for a wild-card berth, but they’re also eight games under .500 at 44-52, so it’s hard to take them seriously at this point. Skubal is sucking up most of the oxygen with this team, and the wins and losses will largely feel like an afterthought in this series.