The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse by Molly Knight Page B
Authors: Molly Knight
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called up to the big leagues, many Dodger veterans didn’t appreciate his cocksure attitude and thought he needed at least a full season under his belt before he could strut around the clubhouse as if he’d already been elected to the Hall of Fame. Nevertheless, Kemp excelled in his first four years in the majors, flashing all five tools on his way to winning a Silver Sluggeraward as one of the best-hitting outfielders in the National League, and finishing tenth in the Most Valuable Player voting in 2009.
But his play collapsed the following year when his enjoyment of the Hollywood lifestyle caused him to show up to the field mentally if not physically hungover many days. In 2010 Kemp hit .249 and struck out 170 times—a franchise record. And on the rare occasion when he did make it to first, he often ran the bases as though he needed directions, and frequently stumbled into outs.
Unfortunately for Kemp, the Dodgers’ coaching staff in 2010 was short on sympathy. At age seventy, the club’s manager, Joe Torre, had little patience for theatrics from his moody center fielder during what was supposed to be the victory lap of his Hall of Fame coaching career. The club’s third-base coach and Torre consigliere, Larry Bowa, enjoyed a hard-earned reputation for being merciless on temperamental young players, with the Chicago Tribune once describing his coaching demeanor as“more psychotic than a psychologist.” That was back when he managed the Padres in 1988, and by many accounts he had only grown more intolerant of bullshit with each passing year. Bowa and Torre both saw Kemp as a player who could transcend the game if he wanted to. But they had no patience for a head case, regardless of his potential.
Much ink was spilled over whether the Dodgers should cut their losses and trade Kemp, with grizzled, old-school ball writers wailing about team chemistry while the new generation of numbers geeks reminded everyone that the only good reason for parting ways with a center fielder who has the potential to hit forty home runs and steal forty bases is if he moonlights as a serial killer in the off-season. Though no one would ever accuse Colletti of bending to the will of the sabermetric crowd, he took their side. In Kemp, Colletti saw a twenty-five-year-old kid with physical gifts that couldn’t be taught. Kemp was immature, yes, but the last thing Colletti wanted to do was sell low on a guy who could wind up being one of the best players in the game.
Colletti had traded a few dozen young players in his six years as the Dodgers’ GM and the only one who turned out to be a star was the Indians catcher Carlos Santana, a fact that he was quick to point out to the press. The Dodgers received veteran third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland in that trade deadline deal, and Blake became a critical member of the club’s NLCS runs in 2008 and 2009. That didn’t change the fact that Santana—who went on to average twenty-two home runs with a .364 on-base percentage during his first three full seasons with the Indians—never should have been traded. But even that mistake wasn’t just Colletti’s fault. Santana was the price the Dodgers had to pay to get the Indians to pick up the remaining few million dollars left on Blake’s tab; he became a victim to the notorious cheapskate tax of the McCourt era.
Colletti’s instincts about Kemp proved right. In 2011, the Dodgers replaced Torre with his hitting coach, the Yankee legend Don Mattingly. Kemp flourished. He raised his batting average seventy-five points and his on-base percentage eighty-nine points, hit thirty-nine home runs, and stole forty bases.He finished second in the NL MVP award voting to Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun—who the world learned later had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the season. Kemp became one of the few bright spots for the Dodgers during one of the bleakest years in franchise history. Colletti responded to Kemp’s resurgence
But his play collapsed the following year when his enjoyment of the Hollywood lifestyle caused him to show up to the field mentally if not physically hungover many days. In 2010 Kemp hit .249 and struck out 170 times—a franchise record. And on the rare occasion when he did make it to first, he often ran the bases as though he needed directions, and frequently stumbled into outs.
Unfortunately for Kemp, the Dodgers’ coaching staff in 2010 was short on sympathy. At age seventy, the club’s manager, Joe Torre, had little patience for theatrics from his moody center fielder during what was supposed to be the victory lap of his Hall of Fame coaching career. The club’s third-base coach and Torre consigliere, Larry Bowa, enjoyed a hard-earned reputation for being merciless on temperamental young players, with the Chicago Tribune once describing his coaching demeanor as“more psychotic than a psychologist.” That was back when he managed the Padres in 1988, and by many accounts he had only grown more intolerant of bullshit with each passing year. Bowa and Torre both saw Kemp as a player who could transcend the game if he wanted to. But they had no patience for a head case, regardless of his potential.
Much ink was spilled over whether the Dodgers should cut their losses and trade Kemp, with grizzled, old-school ball writers wailing about team chemistry while the new generation of numbers geeks reminded everyone that the only good reason for parting ways with a center fielder who has the potential to hit forty home runs and steal forty bases is if he moonlights as a serial killer in the off-season. Though no one would ever accuse Colletti of bending to the will of the sabermetric crowd, he took their side. In Kemp, Colletti saw a twenty-five-year-old kid with physical gifts that couldn’t be taught. Kemp was immature, yes, but the last thing Colletti wanted to do was sell low on a guy who could wind up being one of the best players in the game.
Colletti had traded a few dozen young players in his six years as the Dodgers’ GM and the only one who turned out to be a star was the Indians catcher Carlos Santana, a fact that he was quick to point out to the press. The Dodgers received veteran third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland in that trade deadline deal, and Blake became a critical member of the club’s NLCS runs in 2008 and 2009. That didn’t change the fact that Santana—who went on to average twenty-two home runs with a .364 on-base percentage during his first three full seasons with the Indians—never should have been traded. But even that mistake wasn’t just Colletti’s fault. Santana was the price the Dodgers had to pay to get the Indians to pick up the remaining few million dollars left on Blake’s tab; he became a victim to the notorious cheapskate tax of the McCourt era.
Colletti’s instincts about Kemp proved right. In 2011, the Dodgers replaced Torre with his hitting coach, the Yankee legend Don Mattingly. Kemp flourished. He raised his batting average seventy-five points and his on-base percentage eighty-nine points, hit thirty-nine home runs, and stole forty bases.He finished second in the NL MVP award voting to Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun—who the world learned later had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the season. Kemp became one of the few bright spots for the Dodgers during one of the bleakest years in franchise history. Colletti responded to Kemp’s resurgence
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