Mid-Season Report Card: Los Angeles Angels Left Fielders

Rafael Ortega – Rafael Ortega came in when Nava first got hurt and immediately provided some stability in left field.  In his first stint Ortega batted .294 with no home runs and four RBI’s and also stole two bases.  When he came back up his first game Ortega went two for three against the Dodgers raising his batting average to a season high of .315. Ortega also showed off a great defensive play making a sliding catch down the left field line of a Carl Crawford slicing line drive.

However, that was the beginning of Ortega’s slide as he went seven for 44 the rest of the month dropping his batting average down to .245 by month’s end.  In June Ortega’s batting average continues to plummet hitting five for 24 (.208) and he was subsequently sent down on June 11th and has not been back up since.

Ortega is batting .238 with one home run and nine RBI’s with four stolen bases.  Defensively he made three errors in 81 chances for a .963 fielding percentage.  However, Ortega made a lot of stellar plays on defense.

Grade: C+ – Ortega did some very good things on both the offensive side and also the defensive side, but unfortunately he was not able to show consistency over a longer period of time which led to his demotion.

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