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Dodger Fans, Come Back to Celebrate Matt Kemp

September 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

No doubt about it, this is a tough year to be a Dodger fan. I won’t bore you with the reasons, as after all, we’re all acutely aware of them.

Many of us, including myself, have been watching from the sidelines this season for various reasons. For me, after several years of blogging about the Dodgers, I’ve been more hands off this season. A move to Seattle and a new job have left me with less time to blog, but I’ve been watching and listening. It’s good to be back. :)

With just five games to go in the 2011 season, there’s a huge reason for all Dodger fans on the sidelines, to jump back in. No matter what your reasons for staying away, consider coming back. The reason?  Matt Kemp.

As Dodger fans know, “Beast Mode” is in full effect with the quest for a 40/40 season remaining alive and an even rarer shot at a Triple Crown also within reach. Check out Kemp’s current numbers:

37 HR. Three away from 40, and currently tied as the league leader with one Albert Pujols.

119 RBI. Six more than Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder.

.326 AVG. That’s .003 behind Jose Reyes and Ryan Braun.

Dodger fans, it’s time. At this moment I’m not concerned about your reasons for staying away. Turn on your your radio or television, fire up that iPad, or better yet, get to San Diego or Arizona and root Matt Kemp on. Not only is he playing great baseball, he’s having fun again. Always with a smile on his face, Matt’s even been using Twitter to stay connected with the fans at a level he never has before.

Do you realize how rare a Triple Crown is? The last major leaguer to accomplish such a rare feat was Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. To find the last National Leaguer to win the award, you have to go back another thirty years to Joe Medwick in 1937.

What’s even more incredible is that most players never even get within striking distance of the Triple Crown. From Jason Stark:

So how often has any player had this realistic a shot at a Triple Crown this late in any of those 44 seasons since the Yaz Triple Crown? We asked the Elias Sports Bureau to take a look. You know what they concluded?

Never. That’s what.

According to Elias, not ONCE in all these seasons since 1967 has any player been:

• Leading the league in batting average or been within five
points.

• Leading the league in homers or been within one.

• Leading the league in RBIs or been within one.

And that’s not just in the final week of the season. That’s in the final 15 days of any of those seasons.

So in nearly half a century of waiting around for another Triple Crown winner, we’ve never had a bid like this to follow in the final days of any season. Again, that’s never. Ever. So if you weren’t taking this
drama seriously before, here’s our advice:

It’s time to start. Right … now.

Dodger blogger Jonathan Garza from Dodgers Nation brings up another great point when looking at Kemp’s charge at the Triple Crown. If Kemp were to accomplish the feat, he would do is in a 161 game season, due to a rainout in Washington, DC against the Nationals on September 7.

The question Garza asks is, if the game mattered to the Triple Crown race or Kemp’s quest for 40 HRs, would Major League Baseball schedule a make-up game for the two clubs? The potential positive PR for MLB would be tremendous and could be a shot in the arm for a Dodger franchise desperately in need of a little good news heading into another long offseason.

In the meantime, it’s time to get off your seats, Dodger fans and root The Real Matt Kemp on. At the core, we all bleed Dodger Blue, and we may never see such an impressive individual all-around season for such a good guy ever again. It’s time to celebrate a fantastic season and show Matt Kemp the love.

KEMvP.

Photo Credit: Chris Volk, dodgerfan.net

Filed Under: Featured, Matt Kemp

Mattingly Takes Bold Strokes in his Dodgers Debut

February 21, 2011 By

What Don Mattingly lacks in experience, he makes up for in boldness.  And if his first few days at the helm at Spring Training is any indication, we’re in for an interesting next month.

First off, Mattingly named Clayton Kershaw his Opening Day starter on the first day of camp.  Last year, Joe Torre delayed making this decsision to the very end of camp before making the surprise move by giving the honor to Vicente Padilla.

For the record, I love this move.  It shows moxie and a desire by Mattingly to make this team his own.  It’s time for Kershaw to take the title of staff ace and run with it, and Mattingly showing immediate confidence in his young phenom is awesome to see.

Next, Mattingly named Matt Kemp his cleanup hitter for the majority of the upcoming season.  Woah.  I like the confidence Donny Baseball has in Kemp (and he needs all the confidence Dodger fans and coaches can muster in this critical rebound year), but Kemp strikes out. A LOT.  While others are also sure to be sceptical, we need to remember that there aren’t a whole lot of other options on the club.  If Kemp can curb the Ks, he could provide the insurance behind Andre Ethier to allow the club’s #3 hitter to really shine, much like he did when Manny Ramirez was hitting behind him.

What’s next?  Only time will tell, but Mattingly seems like a man who’s going to have his players walk the walk and put all that potential on the line (the first full workout for the team takes place on Tuesday).  Maybe Chris Gwynn starting in center field?  I wouldn’t put it past Mattingly if the kid gets off to a hot start this spring.  Whatever happens, it’s going to be interesting!

Photo Credit: © Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers 2011

Filed Under: 2011 Spring Training, Don Mattingly, Featured, Matt Kemp

News & Notes (Including Zach Lee & Matt Kemp)

August 19, 2010 By

Lots of good stuff from the Dodger blogosphere (even while the team is 12 games out with virtually no shot of the playoffs).  Here are some of my favorites from the past week:

The Signing of Zach Lee

I’ve got to give credit to Ned Colletti and team for this one.  A GREAT signing and a real feather in the cap of Assistant GM Logan White.  Here’s a nice recap of Lee’s potential (as well as the other draft signings) from Tony Jackson.  The Dodgers really did a nice job (and spent quite a bit of money for once) in getting this done.  A potential 2012 lineup of Billingsley, Kershaw and Lee is pretty damn exciting.

There’s also a great video on the Dodger Media Network showing that Zach Lee was Logan White’s great white whale of the draft.  It’s a well done piece, and a nice look behind the scenes.

Criticizing Kemp

Steve Dilbeck wrote an interesting column today about fans’ perceptions about the performance of Matt Kemp and how any writer who criticizes Kemp is immediately jumped on by rabid fans.  I don’t remember this happening when Chad Billingsley stumbled down the stretch last season.

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2010

Filed Under: baseball blogs, Matt Kemp, Uncategorized, Zach Lee

Trade Rumors of the Day

July 20, 2010 By

As the trade deadline approaches, there are (and will be) numerous rumors, each with varying degrees of truth.  We’ll continue to report the major ones, but keep in mind that these are just rumors, many of which are floated by various general managers and organizations as smokescreens.  Ok, on to the rumors!

The persistent rumor today has the Dodgers talking to the Pirates about starter Paul Maholm.  Per Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“Maholm, a 28-year-old left-hander is the Pirates’ highest-paid player on the active roster at $4.5 million — second baseman Aki Iwamura is continuing to make his $4.85 million salary in the minors — and he is coming off a three-hit shutout Sunday of the Astros. Overall, he is a team-best 6-7 with a 4.03 ERA.”

Paul Maholm? Eh. The news that the Dodgers are talking to the Pirates about this guy doesn’t get me excited (57 Ks and 40 walks in 114+ innings of work), but he most likely is going to be the type of starting pitcher the Dodgers eventually acquire before the trading deadline.  He won’t cost them a ton in terms of prospects (hopefully), and also won’t cost them that much in terms of salary this season and next year (per a tweet from DodgersFYI, “Maholm is owed $5.75M in ’11 % has a 9.75 club option in ’12 that can increase to $11.05M with a $750k buyout”).  No word yet on who the Dodgers may have to give up to land Maholm.

On the plus side, Ned Colletti told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times that he’s not planning on moving Matt Kemp:

“I’ve never floated his name,” General Manager Ned Colletti said. “He’s a gifted, five-tool player. He’s getting better and better. He’s had a tough couple of months. It’s a baseball career. It’s not a baseball two months.

“I have no intention of moving him.”

And trading Andre Ethier would be even crazier than trading Matt Kemp, right?  This is lunacy in my book, but Peter Gammons thinks it’s a possibility (per Steve Dilbeck at the LA Times):

“The one team I keep wondering about if they drop a few games back, if the Dodgers start dropping back, would they talk about Andre Ethier. He’s going to make $10-$12 million next year, the coaching staff feels with their bizarre ownership situation, they don’t want to pay Ethier and might trade him now. That would be a fascinating guy to go after.”

More updates to come…

Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Filed Under: Andre Ethier, Dodger Trade Rumors, Matt Kemp Tagged With:

The Bison Delivers!

June 1, 2010 By

Two nights, two walk-off wins for the Dodgers!  Rather than recap the night’s festivities, I thought I’d let the photographs of Dodgers photographer Jon SooHoo do the talking.  But it’s safe to say, a huge night for both John Ely and Matt “Bison” Kemp!

I’ll be in the press box for tomorrow’s day game against the D-Backs when Edwin Jackson returns to Chavez Ravine!  Email any questions you would like me to ask of Joe, Edwin or any of the Dodgers starters to . 

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo / LA Dodgers 2010

Filed Under: Jon Ely, Matt Kemp Tagged With: ,
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