His defensive metrics have shown him to have negative value defensively in the OF for all but one season(he did not win the GG that year). Rating someone based on gold gloves is flawed as for a defensive award, many times the players that win, do so thanks to their offensive output.
Updated June numbers: .338/.403/.559/.961 with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 2 HRs, 13 RBI, 8 Walks, 19 Ks. Since June 4th, he has raised his OPS by 105 basis points.
The Red Sox "spent significant time watching Matt Kemp last week," though Dodgers GM Ned Colletti told Cafardo that Kemp isn't being traded. Kemp's recent hot streak has "reinforced" his value to Colletti given the dearth of right-handed power options around the game. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/06/cafardos-latest-morales-dbacks-kemp.html
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand. Wrong once again. Should have traded this bum while he had an even little touch of value last week.
Couldn't be more wrong. I have turned on him because he is an absolute liability. An average bat and someone who plays adequate or replacement level D is more valuable than this guy. Scott Van Slyke is better than Matt Kemp. No bullshit. Only thing Matt has going for him is 2011 and 20 mil a year. He is actually costing us games by being so horrible. We are worse according to WAR when he is on the field. That is what's hilarious. The Dodgers are actually better without him.
His defense has given him negative value but even if you take that away: his wOBA this year puts him 14th out of 20 relative to all qualified left fielders
kemp shows occasional flashes of the player he once was but then reverts back to doing stupid shit bad outfield routes, bonehead plays, swinging at breaking pitches down and away out of the zone he's gone from being a good center fielder to an average left fielder we all have to come to the realization that he will never be the player he was in 2011, at that time one of the best in baseball hate to say this, but the only thing that might get him back on track -- back to being a good/productive player again -- might be a change of scenery of course there are still $125MM guaranteed problems in sending him elsewhere
I'm with you guys in that I think Kemp is toast. The strikeouts are high, his knowledge of the strike zone is blatantly bad, he's lost some of his most marketable skills. No longer drives the ball to RF. With no refined skills left in his game I feel it's impossible to sustain any success. But...Question: if Kemp has provided negative value, and we are "worse with him on the field" why has the team improved so much since he took over full time? His smoke and mirrors offensive month had to be a big part of the team doing well, right? Is it circumstantial? Coincidence? Just curious. In terms of the contract...I have no problem with it at all. Bad luck. People like to say he had "one good year". Not so. He was always good. And when he broke out in 2011 something clicked. It carried right over into 2012. Linear success. He was in the midst of an incredible entrance to his prime. Then he got hurt. Uncharacteristically. This guy had played a million games in a row. I can't bash the contract. This was sheer shit luck.
I just wish he would stop swinging at shit so much. What made him so great in 2011 was how he finally payed off pitches off the plate. His discipline was on another level considering how bad he always was. Now, he's back to that 2010 bullshit. 2011 will never happen again, but he needs to look back at those tapes.
The team has gotten better with his move to LF cause of defense first off, and he is hitting better. In June he was a positive asset to this team but his defense and play was so bad before and so far now that he still hasn't played well enough to offset the negative value he gave us. He improved in value due to hitting better and not having shit defense, but some of this is offset in moving to a far less premiere position so even hitting better and playing better D isn't enough at this point. Also, I think the team is playing better for lots of other factors. Defense in general is better. Offense might be better elsewhere? (At Catcher, Dee, and 3B). And pitching, we went from Maholm to Kershaw, got Ryu and our bullpen has had much better results, in large part due to the starters going very deep. So Kemp is giving us more value than before, but is still a ways from being considered a good player for the year. This is coinciding with other factors for our ridiculous June, I think most importantly the clichéd pitching and defense
Agreed. Went from 48 errors in the first two months to not many at all in June. The pitching was absurdly good.