Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.Bobby Abreu's influence has its limitations.
Vladimir Guerrero is still going to swing at everything.
But besides his fine season -- 89 runs scored, 96 RBI, .823 OPS -- Abreu seems to have passed on his patience at the plate to the rest of his Angels teammates.
"He's got the younger players understanding patience isn't a bad thing," Chone Figgins told FanHouse. "It's not about not being aggressive, but being patient, getting a pitch to hit. There's nothing wrong with being 1-1 and hitting, or 1-2, or 2-2.
"It's not something simple to do, but I think we did a good job of it in spring training and have tried to bring it into the season and have so far done a good job."
Figgins has crushed his career high in walks, previously 65, and leads the AL with 95. He is fourth in the league in pitches seen per plate appearance, at 4.23.
And he's not alone.
The Angels last year were last in the league in running up the count, with 3.65 pitches per plate appearance. In fact, they ranked in the AL's bottom three very year from 2002 through 2008.
Now they're fourth in the league, at 3.88.
And, by the way, are second in the AL in runs.
As the Yankees and Red Sox have shown in recent years, working the count forces starting pitchers out of the game and allows the lineup to attack the soft underbelly of middle relief. And patience also leads to walks, which leads to men on base, which lead to runs.
The ability to work the count seems more a skill than a learned behavior -- either you have it or you don't, like a strong arm or speed.
But maybe the Angels are proving otherwise.
"You have to just look for a pitch," Abreu said. "They're going to throw a pitch to you [some] time. Just be patient. You don't have to rush yourself. And have a plan whenever you go to the plate. You have to have a plan. If you have a plan, you just go up there and execute, that's all."
In spring training, hitting coach Mickey Hatcher asked Abreu to specifically tutor Kendry Morales and Erick Aybar in that philosophy.
Well, Morales' pitches per plate appearance is up 14 percent from last year and Aybar is up 7 percent. Howie Kendrick has gone up 10 percent and Juan Rivera 8 percent.
And even veteran Torii Hunter is at a career-high 3.77, 7 percent higher than his career mark coming into the season (3.52).
"Bobby Abreu has brought something different," Hunter said. "A lot more patience. Get a pitch around the plate, that's something he's been preaching to me from day one."
It's all part of a subtle strategy.
"The most important thing that Bobby does," Hatcher said, "is the fact that when the game starts, he might be willing to give an out but he wants to see every pitch that pitcher throws. He's not just taking. If that pitcher's got three pitches, he wants to see them all.
"That's what we talked about with our guys: You don't know what his pitches are, you're just swinging. So you're really not seeing what he has. And I think it's paid off for a lot of these guys. You might get a walk out of it, but the more pitches you see from a guy, you come to understand what he's trying to do to you. I think that's what Bobby does."
The key, Abreu said, is having no fear of hitting while behind in the count."They've been doing great," he said of his teammates. "They're not afraid, which is good. ... They've started to feel comfortable. They don't worry about it."
No player is less afraid of a two-strike count than Abreu. He'll "spit on" borderline strikes, as players say, until he gets one he's looking for or until he has to swing.
Abreu leads the majors with 484 two-strike hits since 2004, including a remarkable 90 in 2007. He has also had 137 more at-bats with two strikes than any other player in that time.
"Bobby has fit right in to give some of the balance [to] a team that was maybe lacking the ability to work counts as well as Bobby does," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's been an important piece to that puzzle.
"But I think Bobby's biggest impact is just the production that he's brought. He's set the table for the middle of our lineup as well as anybody could possibly imagine."
It shouldn't be a surprise, really, but Abreu's remarkable consistency is rivaled only by his ability to go unnoticed.
With four more RBI, Abreu can join Albert Pujols as the only players to drive in 100 runs every season since 2003. He has 11 straight years with 20 or more steals (29 this year, his most since 2005). And he has a chance to play in 150 games for the 12th consecutive season, something done only by Pete Rose, Cal Ripken Jr., Billy Williams and Willie Mays.
(This is a guy who was left unprotected by Houston in the 1997 expansion draft. He wound up in Philadelphia because Tampa Bay wanted shortstop Kevin Stocker and gave the Phillies a choice: the Devil Rays would take either Abreu or Quinton McCracken in the draft and trade him for Stocker. Philadelphia wisely chose Abreu.)
The Angels took advantage of last winter's slow free-agent market to swoop in and sign Abreu, 35, for just $5 million (plus a potential $1 million in playing-time bonuses).
Yes, it has turned out to be a great bargain, and there are indications both sides may have even had preliminary discussions on an extension.
Like some actors, Abreu functions best as part of an ensemble. He didn't thrive as the highest-paid player on the Phillies, when he expected to be the centerpiece of the team. But as a piece with the Yankees and Angels, he is comfortable.
"Pretty much the same, third hitter, set up the table for the guys behind me," Abreu said.
And teach some of them the art of patience.
Overheard and Understood
• There has been speculation on whether the Diamondbacks will pick up the 2010 option on ace Brandon Webb, who underwent shoulder surgery last month. Our guess is Arizona makes a low-base, incentive-laden offer to keep Webb; But since he didn't need major repairs in the shoulder and could be ready for the start of the season, he might be able to find a two-year deal in the Ryan Dempster ($9 million per) range.
| Chart of the Week | ||
|---|---|---|
| Three players have hit 20 or more home runs every year since 2000, making the 2000s the decade with the most players to have 20 homers every year. And three more players could join the group: Manny Ramirez (has 19 this year), Chipper Jones (16) and Vladimir Guerrero (15). | ||
| Decade | 20-HR Player(s) |
|
| 1920s |
Babe Ruth |
|
| 1930s |
Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx |
|
| 1940s |
None |
|
| 1950s |
Gil Hodges |
|
| 1960s |
Hank Aaron |
|
| 1970s |
Reggie Jackson |
|
| 1980s |
None |
|
| 1990s |
Barry Bonds, Matt Williams |
|
| 2000s |
Carlos Lee, Alex Rodriguez, Lance Berkman |
|
| Source: Astros | ||
• How important will home-field advantage be in the playoffs? It looks like six of the eight teams in the field will have a home winning percentage better than .600. And home teams overall this year have a .551 winning percentage, the sixth-highest mark ever, according to STATS LLC. Last year's home winning percentage was .556 -- but the team with home-field advantage won just four of the seven series.
• When the Rays traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels, they were 69-58 and 4 1/2 games out in the wild-card race. While the idea behind the Kazmir trade made some sense -- with some pitching depth, save the money remaining on his contract to help keep the rest of the club together -- the timing seems to have sent the wrong message in the clubhouse. One friend of some Rays said the players wondered if the front office had given up on a playoff push this year. And since the trade, Tampa Bay has gone 7-15 and fallen out of contention while looking lethargic for long stretches.
• When Adam Moore caught all 14 innings of the Mariners' Thursday win over the White Sox, it marked the most innings caught in a big-league debut in at least 55 years.
• Cincinnati's recent success is meaningless, and doesn't necessarily presage a playoff run in 2010, but it does seem to affirm that for all the criticism leveled at Dusty Baker, he has a knack for getting his team to play hard. And that's no small thing.
• What does good play in September mean the next year? The best record in last year's final month belonged to Kansas City. The best teams in September 2007 were the Yankees, Indians and Rockies; both missed the playoffs in 2008.
• Only once since 1900 has a shortstop batted .325 with 15 homers and 25 stolen bases -- Hanley Ramirez two seasons ago. But Ramirez, Jason Bartlett and Derek Jeter could all do it this year.• Quotes from Twins manager Ron Gardenhire on Carl Pavano that Yankees fans will find hard to believe: "I like the way he goes about his business. ... Plus, he's very competitive. ... Since he's come here, he's been really good for our ballclub. A real bonus."
• Red Sox manager Terry Francona was asked about how teams position their left fielder at Fenway Park. "When Manny [Ramirez] was here," Francona cracked, "we didn't know what our philosophy was. We tried to have one, but we didn't always know what it was."
