Green benefiting from Kendrick's guidance

ANAHEIM -- Grant Green has played second base for less than a year, but already feels comfortable and believes it is the position that suits him best.

The reason for Green's confidence? His natural abilities combined with Howie Kendrick's mentorship.

"I feel I can use my athleticism there and do some things that some second baseman can't, and talking to Howie and getting some stuff from him has really helped my confidence," Green said. "If he sees something out of the ordinary, he comes to me and says, 'Hey this is what I saw. This is what I'd do, maybe try it.' For a guy like Howie to be able to do that to a new guy coming up and a new guy in the organization, shows a lot of his character."

When Kendrick went on the DL with a left knee sprain, Green got his chance to play every day. Although Kendrick was hurt and unable to help the Angels directly, the second baseman took the opportunity to mentor Green.

"You can help guys with the basics, but from there, they can do their own thing," Kendrick said. "That's how I learned from Adam Kennedy. He taught me a couple things, and then I put my own take on it. That's one of the things about this game, there's no one way to do things. Your style becomes your style. He's pretty confident and is going to be a good player."

Green came up through the Minor Leagues as a shortstop, and Kendrick said one one of the toughest things about switching from short to second is turning a double play. When a shortstop gets the ball on a double play, he often already has momentum carrying him toward first base, but a second baseman needs to generate that momentum in order to get off a strong throw.

While Green still has some work to do, Kendrick feels he is picking it up well and has been impressed with Green's willingness to put in the extra work.

"He's learning from just playing," Kendrick said. "That's the only way you're going to get game experience and learn on the fly, turn double plays and get familiar around the bases. He's learning the technique. He's putting in the time to learn how to do things."