When the Angels took Reid Detmers as the No. 10 overall pick in the 2020 Draft, he came with the reputation of being an advanced college left-hander who could potentially move quickly through the system. Despite the shutdown in 2020 that limited him to just 22 innings for his junior season at Louisville, the fact the Angels’ No. 2 prospect is making his Major League debut on Sunday shows that he’s more than lived up to that billing.

This should not surprise anyone who has watched the 22-year old work since he joined the organization. He performed so well during his time at the alternate site last summer, there were whispers about bringing him up to the big leagues then, though that might have been more of a “he really belongs” reaction than any real consideration to promote him that quickly. It continued this spring during his time in big league camp, where he impressed manager Joe Maddon with how he went about his business.

Detmers’ combination of stuff and feel for how to use it allowed him to jump straight to Double-A to start his pro career. He got his feet under him during his first month of action -- we’ll call it “scuffling” -- with a 4.05 ERA in May. He got rolling in June, with a 3.86 ERA in four starts inflated only because he gave up five runs in a six-inning start near the end of the month, an outing during which he also recorded 16 strikeouts. That was one of three double-digit strikeout performances in June for the southpaw.

Then he really turned it on in July. He gave up three runs in 13 IP over three starts in Double-A, struck out both hitters he faced in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game in Denver, got promoted to Triple-A and proceeded to toss six shutout innings a week ago before getting the call to Anaheim to start against the A’s on Sunday.

Throughout all of it, Detmers has missed a ton of bats (15.9 K/9) and walked very few (2.7 BB/9). And he’s done it with very good stuff that plays up because of the deception in his delivery and his ability to command all four of his pitches very well. He’s managed to keep throwing strikes despite throwing harder now than he did during his time in Louisville. In his shortened college season a year ago, Detmers’ fastball averaged around 90.7 mph, while his plus curve was 72.5, his slider (more on that in a bit) came in just a touch over 78 mph and his sinking changeup averaged around 79.5 mph.

The Futures Game was a small sample size, and given that he was only facing two batters, he was probably able to let loose a bit more, but he didn’t throw a fastball under 93 mph, topping out at 95. He threw a 73.7 mph curve, two sliders at 86 and 88 mph, and tossed in an 84-mph changeup for good measure. He threw 10 pitches, seven for strikes, which is right in line with the 69 percent strike rate he had during his Triple-A start.

Normally, a short outing in an exhibition game shouldn’t say all that much about a pitcher, but in this case, it points exactly to what Angels fans should expect from Detmers on Sunday and beyond. No one would blame any pitcher for coming into the Futures Game amped up and deciding to air it out and light up the radar gun. Sure, maybe Detmers’ fastball had a little more zip, but he’s regularly in the 93-94 mph range anyway. And even with that, he still threw strikes and used all four of his pitches in the game, much to the chagrin of Mets prospect Brett Baty, who got two fastballs and struck out on a slider, and Rockies prospect Willie MacIver, who got a 2-0 changeup, fouled off a fastball and another changeup, then was frozen by a slider.

This is a pitcher who trusts his stuff enough to throw a 2-0 changeup in front of a packed house on a national stage. This is a pitcher who, when he made it up to Triple-A, didn’t try to singlehandedly pitch his way to the big leagues, instead staying with his game plan to give up just three hits without a walk (he hit one batter) while striking out nine.

This is a pitcher who used his time at the alternate site wisely. A student of his craft, Detmers came into pro ball with a good fastball, a plus curve and a solid changeup. A lot of young pitchers would be good with that, but Detmers got to work on improving his slider, which is now harder and crisper and is a pitch he’s willing to use more regularly, including as an out pitch in big situations.

People may talk about pitchers like Detmers and a perceived lack of ceiling and it’s true, he will never “look” like a top-of-the-rotation type in terms of pure stuff or velocity. It’s possible he’s a mid-rotation starter when all is said and done, and having a durable and effective No. 3 starter is nothing to complain about. But his desire to always get better, his understanding of how to set up, and put away, hitters, and his mentality that allows him to seemingly always stay within himself, those are the kinds of things that allow starting pitchers to often outperform projections.