Angels' Kendrick taking more walks

ANAHEIM -- Howie Kendrick swears he isn't looking for walks, but he sure is doing a lot more of it these days.

Heading into the weekend series against the Rangers, the Angels' veteran second baseman -- batting in the leadoff spot for the third straight game -- had drawn 12 walks, which is already more than half of his total for all of last season (23) and more than a third of the way towards his career high (33 in 2011).

From 2010-13, Kendrick had a walk percentage of 4.8. Through the first month of this year, it's 9.7 percent.

"If you can have more walks, it can be beneficial," said Kendrick, who has a .296/.382/.417 slash line in his first 27 games. "But at the same time, I'm not going up looking to walk, if that makes any sense. I want to go up and hit, ideally. I want to hit. Walking is not a bad thing, and if that's a product of not getting anything to hit, then yeah, I'll take the walks, too. But if you ask any hitter in here, they're not going up trying to take a walk."