Angels’ Kevin Frandsen happy to know his role
Kevin Frandsen is glad the wonder years are over.
Wondering when he was going to play and what his role would be with the San Francisco Giants eventually got old.
Frandsen doesn’t necessarily have a glamorous job with the Angels as a utility infielder, but at least he knows what is expected of him when he comes to the ballpark.
If he needs to move over a runner at the plate, he’ll do it. He also tries to minimize his mistakes at third base, a position he had played sparingly before this year.
“That, to me, made it a lot easier to get comfortable, knowing my role and not wondering, in the wonder state, which I felt like I’ve been for years now,” said Frandsen, who joined the Angels in late April after they claimed him off waivers from the Boston Red Sox. “Now I feel I’m in a good spot here and I think my abilities have shown.”
Frandsen, 28, is hitting a team-leading .370 in 46 at-bats, leading to increased playing time the last few weeks after Brandon Wood’s departure to the minor leagues. He has at least one hit in nine of his last 11 starts, and the Angels are 12-5 in games in which he has appeared.
“He’s versatile,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Frandsen, who can also play second base, shortstop and the corner outfield spots. “He has a strong idea of how to play the game and what he needs to do as far as in the batter’s box, and he’s been just playing at a very, very high level and it’s been important to us.”
Frandsen appeared to be in the Giants’ plans after a 2007 season in which he batted .269 in 109 games. Then he ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon in spring training the next year, and soon the San Jose native was no longer wanted in the Bay Area.
“It was supposed to happen, and when I got hurt they just completely gave up on it,” said Frandsen, who played in only 24 games combined in 2008 and ’09 before the Giants traded him to Boston in March. “I feel like the Angels and Scioscia see that I can do it, I can play. I’m fortunate for that.”
Proper perspective
Frandsen was interviewed on the Dodger Stadium field before the Freeway Series opener as part of the Dodgers’ ThinkCure! campaign to eradicate cancer. His older brother, D.J., died from adolescent kidney cancer at age 25 in 2004.
Frandsen said his brother, who often went directly from chemotherapy treatments to watch his sibling play baseball at San Jose State, taught him about more than perseverance.
“There are people who expend so much energy on their life and we expend so much stress and everything about going 0 for 4,” Frandsen said. “The thing he taught me — and it’s taken me a long time to understand it — is that you have to live one day at a time. Don’t live in two days from now.”
Minor setback
Catcher Jeff Mathis is not expected to rejoin the Angels this weekend after taking a pitch off his right thumb Thursday at triple-A Salt Lake when he blocked a ball in the dirt.
Mathis, recovering from a broken right wrist that has sidelined him since late April, is considered day to day and could resume his rehabilitation assignment as soon as Saturday, but Scioscia said Mathis probably would play through the weekend with the Bees before being activated from the disabled list.
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