2 LA Angels players who’ve earned an apology from the doubters, 2 not quite there

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The 2023 season has been one full of highs and lows for the Los Angeles Angels and we've still got 64 games to go. Virtually anyone watching this Angels team has doubted them at some point, yet here they sit at two games over .500 and still very much alive in the postseason race.

Just this month alone we've seen the Angels lose five in a row and have fans thinking the season is over. We've also seen them win five in a row in their attempt to climb back into the race and reel fans back in.

As we approach the trade deadline, it's time for a pair of Angels players to receive apologies for how well they've played of late. Two more might be pushing toward an apology of their own, but still have to prove themselves.

LA Angels outfielder Taylor Ward has earned an apology from his doubters

Taylor Ward got off to an abysmal start to his season. He ended the month of April barely hitting over .200, and the month of May wasn't much better for the 2022 breakout star. Since the calendar flipped to June, Ward has been one of the most consistent bats in an inconsistent Angels lineup.

Since June 1, Ward has slashed .273/.360/.482 with six home runs and 20 RBI. He has a 131 WRC+ over the last month and a half which among healthy players ranks just behind Shohei Ohtani and Mickey Moniak.

The month of July has been even better for Ward who has slashed .304/.429/.630 with three home runs and 10 RBI in 13 games. His 189 WRC+ is the highest on the team. Yes, higher than Ohtani. At a time that the Angels have really needed his bat with all of the injuries they've dealt with, Ward has come through.

It hasn't been the season we had hoped for from Ward following his 2022 breakout, but his play since June 1, a large sample size, has been extraordinary. He deserves all the praise he gets when he plays like this.

LA Angels pitcher Aaron Loup has earned an apology from his doubters

This is definitely hard to admit for a whole bunch of Angels fans, but since returning off the IL Aaron Loup has been a completely different pitcher. In early May, the veteran southpaw went onto the IL with a hamstring strain. He was pitching so poorly to the point where many fans assumed this was just a phantom IL stint to get him off the field without actually releasing him.

At the time he was placed on the IL, Loup had an ERA of 7.00 and had nearly allowed the Cardinals to get back into what was once an Angels blowout. Soon after Ryan Tepera was DFA'd by the Angels, it truly felt Loup was right behind him. Fortunately, Loup had other plans.

With the idea that being more aggressive with his fastball would help him, Aaron Loup stopped pitching scared and has been an effective reliever since returning off the IL. In 20 appearances he has a 3.86 ERA in 18.2 innings of work. A 3.86 ERA isn't anything special for a reliever, but it's also skewed heavily by one rough outing against the Dodgers in which he allowed four runs. He's allowed just eight earned runs total, so half of the runs he's given up came from that one outing.

Overall, he's allowed runs in just five of his outings since returning off the IL. Loup still isn't being used much in high-leverage spots, but his scoreless inning with the ghost runner on base against the Yankees allowed the Halos to steal a game from the Bronx Bombers. He's lowered his season ERA from 7.00 to 4.88.

It hasn't been what Angels fans expected since signing him, but he's been great since late May. It's time to give him some respect.

LA Angels pitcher Reid Detmers hasn't quite earned his apology from the doubters

Reid Detmers has had a season resembling the one his team has had. He's had some great moments and some awful ones. His inconsistency has contributed to this team never really putting together long stretches of play.

Detmers got off to a rough start to his season. He had an ERA of 5.10 through his first six starts, often failing to go deep in games and having one brutal inning in which the Angels would go from in the game or even winning to out of it in an eye blink.

The southpaw then went a nine-start span by posting a 2.92 ERA. in 52.1 innings. He was pitching deeper into games and was striking out a ton of guys as well.

His last two starts have been frustratingly not great again. Seven runs in 3.1 innings against the Dodgers, four runs in six innings against the Astros. His start against Houston wasn't that bad, but doing things like walking the seven and eight hitters with two outs and then giving up a back-breaking two-run double to Martin Maldonado is exactly why he can be so frustrating to watch.

The talent is there, he just hasn't put it all together to the point where he's earned an apology for his horrific beginning of the season.

LA Angels infielder Luis Rengifo hasn't quite earned his apology from the doubters

Like Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo is a player who broke out in 2022 and had expectations of a guy who was supposed to help contribute in a big way. Even if he wasn't a regular starter like Ward, Rengifo was the super utility guy who was still going to play four or times a week all over the diamond and be expected to be impactful. For the first three months of the season, that simply did not happen.

By the end of June, Rengifo was slashing .202/.292/.298 with four home runs and 21 RBI. He had been walking more which is great, but that's just about the only thing he was doing well. He wasn't hitting, wasn't hitting for power, wasn't a good defender, wasn't a good baserunner, nothing.

Thanks to injuries and Phil Nevin's obsessive need to play Rengifo constantly, he played a ton over the first three months and struggled. The injuries have forced his way into the lineup virtually every day in the month of July, and Rengifo has finally started to turn his season around.

Rengifo has a .366 OBP and a .909 OPS thanks to six walks and three home runs in 41 plate appearances this month. He has a 149 WRC+ in the month of July which trails only Ward, Ohtani, and Moniak on the team. Unfortunately, a 41 plate appearance hot streak isn't enough to take away what transpired over the first three months. He might be trending toward receiving an apology, but isn't quite there yet.

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