nor am i but he is struggling... badly and as the de facto leader, it appears to be having an effect on the entire team... the whole "as kemp goes, the dodgers go" mantra and -- even though it probably isn't the case -- did anyone else chuckle to themselves in the 9th last night, thinking that street was pitching around aj -- even willing to load the bases -- just to get to kemp?...
No hate for Kemp - just get him out of the heart of the order. Hate is reserved for the manager on this one. :ranting:
He has the most upside of anyone in our lineup, a two-time Silver Slugger, and the leader of this team. I'm not batting him 7th or benching him.
Yeah, I think maybe a small change might do him well. I'm not kissing his ass, but Mattingly probably knows him as well as anyone, so he knows what might make it work. Maybe it's flip to the 4th spot, but I truly think moving him way down in the order will bring a lot more negatives than positives. I bet if it's late in the year, with a much larger sample size, something drastic happens. but right now it's early. Matt Cain has an ERA above 8; sometimes (especially after surgeries) people start slow. It sucks ass, it's annoying (especially cause it's cause of a wall), and it fucking kills me to watch him bat right now. If it continues for awhile (much like if the losing continues for awhile), I say late into May, then something should happen. it feels a lot longer than 15 games cause we saw it from the end of last year, which is the frustrating part, but I still think he needs to be out there, middle of the order. Just hoping he hits soon
It always comes to the "hate bandwagon" thing. What does it matter who hates who... certainly not a bunch of frustrated, disappointed and loyal fans on a team website voicing displeasure of the embarrassment every night? Kemp has sucked and gets paid a lot of money to hit HRs and RBIs....is that accurate, would you say? Bottom line-without the birdseed? And Mattingly has shown consistently that he's no genius at winning BB games and getting his team into playoffs at the end...and that's what he's paid for. I know that's what he's paid for....it can't be the midwestern tractor yarns and his wonderful Yankee career can it? Been there, done that. We just gave Kemp the farm, and Mattingly a lot less, so who should go, if anyone? Knowing the LAD, he'll be extended for a few more, even with the floundering superstar team he has, and we'll all be watching the Giants or someone else in the fall, just like the last 25 years. Or quarter century, whichever makes the point best. Rewarded bigtime , if he fails. See: Ned Colletti. Not only spent uncountabajillions of dollars on players and renovation, we wuz whupped like a redheaded stepchild by the Padres, who not only completely fucked up our number 2, but Capuano as well. The Minister of Hate, G.O.
Yeah there's no doubt he needs to step it up. Not kissing his ass, like Doyer said, but Kemp has his credentials.
Kemp's BA is .185. I'd rather not have that in the heart of the order. We are not scoring runs and we are losing games. He's got to play through his slump - according to Karros on yesterday's pre-game. Okay, I've got that. And no doubt he will come around. But I wouldn't tank the batting order by sticking him third every night. He's an auto out right now. Why lose games because of it? Move him down. When he starts hitting the ball, then bring him back to the three slot. The manager should always play his hottest hand and always play to win.
"Coming around". That's the problem for me. I don't doubt he's gonna not hit this bad the rest of the year. Where I am scared is what 'coming around' means. Will he have the strength and timing again to launch HRs to right field? Or will he find comfort ability with a temporary fix and fuck himself up even more?
I don't know what's wrong with Kemp. It seems to me he isn't even seeing the ball. He's always swinging at the first pitch and missing wildly - badly fooled - like he can't tell the difference between a curve ball and a fastball. So, he's not watching the ball leave the pitcher's fingers? Not looking for the seems? Not identifying the pitch? He's not waiting for the ball to enter into his round house? His ABs look pretty crude to me.
We have been beat by opposing team hit and runs and the like while we sit stagnant, waiting for the huge hit that never comes.
AGon HAS to bat 3rd right now. We are wasting his hottness and let Kemp and Ethier fight for 4th and 5th(R/L)...until kemp gets hot again. Then at least we have 3 solid hitter in a row for once. This spacing out good hitting around dead meat is killing us.
Well, if you're suggesting we do the same...i'm with you...but remember we don't have that type of team. High paid clubs rarely do.
I'm not too suprised the Padres swept us. ever since the Bad News Bears beat the Toros at the Astrodome, nothing suprises me.
We should just try to get more runs than the other team on a consistent basis or some shit. Dunno, I'm no expert.
again, not on the hate kemp bandwagon per se but you have to do what's best for the team -- and right now he is clearly hurting the team that is inarguable and his at bats are horrible -- he goes up with no plan and looks lost up there
Can't say I disagree with any of those points made. I get it. We're all frustrated, players aren't producing, and it's starting to get embarassing for us all. With that being said, these guys have got to get it done. No more excuses. They need to play hard nosed, sound baseball. Everyone is putting on hit and run plays against us, but I can't even remember the last time the Dodgers have done that. I'm tired of people getting on base and not doing anything because everyone is expecting that big hit that's not going to come. The Dodgers are trying to play American League baseball and it's not working. Especially when you have 2-3 reserve/replacement level players in your lineup on a nightly basis. I understand why people are frustrated with Kemp, I am too; but it seems rather silly to want his head after 15 games when he has that MVP potential.
I don't think anybody wants his head but just have him not hit in the 3 slot while he is the worst player on the team.
So what lineup would you want then? Keep in mind Dre hasn't done a whole lot either. There's really nowhere we can go with this. Like I said, switch Gonzo and Kemp. Hopefully that will take some pressure off him.
