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."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
In 2005, Tom Gorzelanny pitched in the majors for the first time. He was just 22. Two years later, he went 14-10 with a 3.88 ERA -- logging more than 200 innings in 32 starts for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. He did allow too many hits, but he was only 25 years old, so it appeared he would settle in as an anchor for the ever-rebuilding Pirates.
Instead, he had a disastrous past two seasons and had been relegated to the minors. Last week, Gorzelanny was traded to the Cubs, and Tuesday night he passed his Cubs debut with flying colors.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
As Major League Baseball launches into the second half of their season Thursday night, there is one playoff race that should intrigue and excite fans no matter where their allegiances may lie. The Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays may just be the best three teams in the American League (for my money, they are). Yet, all three reside in the AL East, which means only two can make the playoffs.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
The most remarkable thing about this season as we hit the not-halfway halfway point of the All-Star break isn't Albert Pujols' RBI total. Or Zack Greinke's ERA. Or the PED suspension of one of the game's biggest stars.
It's the standings. And they not only reflect the season so far, they give us a clue as to the weeks head leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.
The Phillies and Dodgers are the only first-place team with a lead of more than 2 1/2 games. And 21 of the 30 teams are within 7 1/2 games of a playoff spot: nine of 14 in the AL and 12 of 16 in the NL.
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Well, that took freaking forever ... but the Blue Jays finally started to stink the joint up. I swear to you, you can't stay long atop the MLB Power Rankings -- our failure by osmosis jinxing ability is just too strong, son. At any rate, it was a weird week for ranking baseball: the Cubs continued to skid, the Padres went on a tear and Toronto fell off the face of the planet. So, yeah, spiciness ensued, and you may take the jump to see how badly your team fared. Unless you're a Rangers or a Braves fan, in which case they couldn't have done that poorly.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That all of that talk about the Blue Jays being legitimate contenders was perhaps premature. The Blue Jays had the best record in the league back on May 10, before they had played a single game against the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays.
Since then the Blue Jays are 5-10, including a 1-5 mark against Boston and New York. Now they've lost eight in a row, including the past two against the woeful Orioles.
"We're just in a rut right now," Kevin Millar said. "Eventually it's going to turn around. We've just got to keep plugging along."
The Blue Jays' main problem has been inability to hit in the clutch. They are hitting .141 with runners in scoring position during the losing streak.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Big Apple, we have a problem. And one that could be a major concern in fantasy baseball leagues, too.
Jose Reyes, undoubtedly a top-10 fantasy pick, left Wednesday's game against the Dodgers after aggravating a right calf injury while trying to leg out an infield single. Reyes had missed five straight starts with the injury, and it looks like a trip to the disabled list is a possibility at some point. The Mets can consider alternatives to watching Ramon Martinez twirl his toothpick bat -- like the versatile Mark DeRosa -- but the solution isn't so simple for fantasy owners relying on his speed.
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
While it's entirely possible the Blue Jays do hit a snag, isn't it about time columnists across the internet stopped doing Can the Blue Jays Really Keep This Up? pieces by now? I've seen at least 10 in the past three weeks. There are almost as many The Rangers Are For Real posts. The discrepancy in the media's faith in those two is likely due to the divisions in which the teams reside, but seven weeks isn't a small sample. At some point, you have to start giving credit where it's due.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
It was only a matter of time. As much as people want to talk about the New York pressure and how you can't continue to look at his career's worth of slow-starting seasons, all we had to do was be patient and wait for the inevitable stat correction when it came to Mark Teixeira. Now, we're right in the middle of it. In his last six games, Teixeira is hitting .458 with 3 home runs, 11 RBI and a 1.458 OPS. Low and behold, he's on pace for 42 bombs and 119 RBI.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Remember when Rickie Weeks was a hot new prospect whose quick bat drew comparisons to Gary Sheffield? Yeah, turns out that was four years ago.
Following season after season of frustration for hopeful fantasy owners, Weeks is finally coming through. The speed isn't there, but he's homered in three straight games to give him nine total in only 140 at-bats. By comparison, he only hit 14 in 475 at-bats last year. So has our man-crush of yesteryear suddenly transformed into the new Dan Uggla, or is this impressive power display just another tease?
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
