Howie Kendrick Recalled to Angels

While he doesn't have much power or a ton of speed, one thing Howie Kendrick has always been able to do is hit the baseball. His career batting average in the minor leagues is an absurd .360 -- with a .972 OPS, which is even more impressive considering his lack of home run power. In the majors, he's generally been a .300 hitter as well. Thus, entering 2009 as a 25-year-old with a firm grasp on an everyday second base job, expectations were a bit high. Kendrick flopped.

He was demoted to the minors after hitting only .231 with an abominably low .636 OPS through 51 games. After about three weeks in Triple-A, though, the Angels feel confident Kendrick is ready to come back, and he's been recalled.

"We want to bring him up again," (manager Mike) Scioscia said. "He has been getting some good at-bats in Salt Lake and he will really be able to give us a boost at the bottom of the lineup."

Kendrick will slide in at second base and likely hit in the eight or nine spot for the Angels -- who are tied for first place in the AL West with the Texas Rangers.

Fantasy Spin: The young second baseman was bad enough to win a starting spot on my Andruw Jones All-Star team, but that looks to be an aberration. Consider his BABIP. It was .324, .381, and .357 in his first three major league seasons. When he puts the ball in play, he gets hits. This season, though, it was an abnormally low .269. Simply put, he was likely not hitting balls as hard as he used to and was getting pretty unfortunate with where he was hitting them. His K/BB and GB/FB rates don't suggest he was an incredibly different hitter than in years past either.

Translation: His 2009 batting average is going to go up. Quite a bit, in fact. He's a good add in any mixed league -- an absolute must-add in any AL-League where he's available -- as a middle-infielder where you need average help and already have plenty of power. He won't hurt in runs scored or steals, either.