Kendry Morales Making Angels Forget About Mark Teixeira

New Studs on the Block takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.

The Los Angeles Angels are surging right now offensively, and one of the main benefactors was someone no one counted on stepping up this season. When the Angels lost out on the Mark Teixeira bidding -- shockingly, he took the Yankees' money -- a 25-year-old with only 407 career plate appearances and a modest-at-best .711 OPS stepped in.

The results, thus far, from now-26-year-old Kendry Morales have been staggering.

Morales is currently seventh in the AL in OPS (.931), tied for eighth in home runs (23), tied for 10th in RBI (69) and tied for 12th in doubles. Along with Bobby Abreu, Morales has been the constant anchor of the Angels offense through Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter injuries.

Teaming those gaudy numbers above with his .299 batting average, 53 runs scored and a stolen base, there really isn't much reason that Morales shouldn't be owned in every single fantasy baseball league. Yet, I see he's available in 33 percent of Yahoo! fantasy leagues. Unless you are desperately in need of steals, go check his availability right now, because he most certainly should be owned in every league.

Obviously, he's not going to stay this hot. Since June 12, Morales has a 1.155 OPS with 15 home runs and 37 RBI -- a span of just 40 games. He won't suffer a drastic decline, though, because he's still maturing at the major-league level and he has never had any trouble hitting minor-league pitching when down (.332 career batting average in the minors).

There are no trends that show he's putting up fluky numbers at this point, either. His BABIP is .312, which isn't much above the norm for a line drive hitter. His ground ball to fly ball ratio is the exact same as last season, so his home runs aren't a product of additional lift in his swing. This is simply the case of a young player coming into his own as a legitimate major league hitter.

So, again, go get him if he's available. Kendry Morales is the new stud on the block.