LA Angels: Has Michael Lorenzen fallen off a cliff?

Michael Lorenzen has had his inconsistencies for the LA Angels all year, but overall looked line a fine starting arm for this Angels team through his first 10 starts in Anaheim. He boasted a 3.45 ERA, a 3.69 FIP, and a .215 batting average allowed. He was 6-3 on the year.

In his last two starts, however, he has not looked at all like the pitcher he was for so much of the season. He's gone just five innings and three innings, respectively. He gave up seven earned runs in that first start, and two in that next one. He walked seven total in those eight innings, and gave up 11 hits. Ouch.

He did strike out eight, which isn't bad, but again it's hard to look past the fact that over his last two starts he's lasted just eight combined innings. Then, his overall numbers on the season look rough. He has a fine 6-5 record and okay 3.97 FIP, but he also has a 4.24 ERA and 93 ERA+.

Michael Lorenzen doesn't look impressive in his statistics with the LA Angels.

Michael Lorenzen's LA Angels batting average against is .229 and his WHIP is 1.265. Again, he's largely a middle-of-the-pack starter according to his statistics. Sure, he's only allowing 0.7 home runs per nine innings, but he's also only striking out 6.9 hitters per nine frames.

What looked like a potential steal for the Halos has lost its rhythm as of late. It's far too early to call the signing a failure, but Lorenzen certainly can't let this rough patch last too much longer. The Halos have only lost three times to the Mariners this season. Two of them have been in starts from Lorenzen.

The bright side, however, is that Lorenzen most certainly has the talent to bounce back from this. He's had multiple sub-3 ERA seasons and three 134 ERA+ or higher seasons in his career. Has he fallen off a cliff? Give him some time before that's decided. He absolutely could end up progressing back to the mean.