Matt Kemp
From BR Bullpen
Matthew Ryan Kemp
(The Bison)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 215 lb.
- High School Midwest City High School
- Debut May 28, 2006
- Born September 23, 1984 in Midwest City, OK USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Outfielder Matt Kemp was drafted in the sixth round of the 2003 amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was signed by scout Mike Leuzinger and debuted that year with the GCL Dodgers, hitting .270/.298/.346. A year later, he hit .288/.330/.499 for the Columbus Catfish and moved up to the Vero Beach Dodgers, where he batted .351/.405/.568 in 11 contests. In 2004-2005, he was second in the Arizona Fall League with a .383 batting average.
Kemp led the Vero Beach Dodgers with 27 homers and 90 RBI in 2005, overall producing a .306/.349/.569 line and also swiping 23 bases. He led the Florida State League in slugging, was second in homers, sixth in average and made the FSL All-Star team at DH. He was rated the 5th-best prospect in the league by Baseball America.
After a strong start in 2006 with the Jacksonville Suns (.327/.402/.528), he made his major league debut with Los Angeles but was sent back down to AAA for most of July and August. Baseball America named him the top power prospect and most exciting player in the Southern League despite only 48 games there. Kemp hit .368/.428/.560 in 44 games for the Las Vegas 51s with 37 runs and 36 RBI. He also stole 14 bases in 17 tries. Baseball America rated him the #6 prospect in the Pacific Coast League, between Andy LaRoche and Chris Young. At the major league level, he hit .253 in 52 games.
He hit .222/~.295/.303 for the 2006-2007 Estrellas Orientales and hit .329 for the Las Vegas 51s in 2007 before being brought back to the Dodgers, where he played in 98 games hitting .342 with 10 HR and 42 RBI. He was part of an exciting trio of young hitters for the Dodgers that season, alongside Andre Ethier and James Loney, although the team's overall performance was affected by a rift between the team's highly-paid veterans, led by Jeff Kent, and its more productive youngsters, a rift which cost manager Grady Little his job after the season. Now established as the Dodgers' starting centerfielder, Kemp played 155 games in 2008, hitting .290 with 38 doubles and 18 homers as the Dodgers won the NL West title. He was only 2 for 13 as the Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS, then redeemed himself with a 5-for-15 performance in the NLCS, but the Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in 5 games. He had an excellent season in 2009, winning both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger Award as the Dodgers repeated as NL West champions. He hit .296 with 26 homers and 101 RBI, topping both the 20-homer and 100-RBI mark for the first time. He was 2 for 14, but with a key home run, a two-run shot off Chris Carpenter in the bottom of the 1st inning of Game One, as the Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS, then was 5 for 20 with another homer as the Dodgers again bowed to the Phillies in the NLCS.
Kemp was seen dating singing star Rihanna in 2010 before the two broke up towards the end of the year. Some blamed his poor performance during the season to the distraction caused by the celebrity buzz around the couple. He ended the year hitting only .249, although he did play all 162 of his team's game that season and launched 28 homers. He bounced back in a big way in 2011, making the All-Star team for the first time. On August 26th, he hit his 30th homer to become the second player in Dodgers history to join the 30-30 club, after Raul Mondesi who did it twice in the 1990s. He also had 33 steals with a month left in the season at that point, and was also only 2 RBI away from a second 100-RBI season. He finished the year hitting .324 with 39 homers and 126 RBI - the latter two league-leading totals -, and was second behind Milwaukee's Ryan Braun in the vote for the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player Award. When it was later revealed that Braun had tested positive for a banned substance during the postseason, there were calls to attribute the award to Kemp, although these died down fairly quickly, and Braun was eventually cleared because of a lapse in the testing protocol.
Kemp started 2012 exactly where he had left off in 2011, annihilating opposing pitchers to the tune of a .417 average and 12 homers in April. he was also first in the National League in hits (35), RBI (25) and slugging percentage (.893) on his way to winning the league's Player of the Month award by unanimous vote. Buoyed by Kemp's outstanding production, the Dodgers were off to an excellent 16-7 start. On May 14th, his consecutive games played streak ended at 399 when he was not in the line-up for a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks; it was the longest active streak in the majors, but he had to be removed from the previous day's game with a pulled hamstring, and then was placed on the 15-day disabled list at the end of the game he failed to start. He was hitting .359 with 12 homers and 28 RBI at the time, having cooled down after his torrid first month.
Sources: 2004-2007 Baseball Almanacs, Minorleaguebaseball.com
[edit] Notable Achievements
- NL All-Star (2011)
- 2-time NL Gold Glove Winner (2009 & 2011)
- 2-time NL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2009 & 2011)
- NL Runs Scored Leader (2011)
- NL Total Bases Leader (2011)
- NL Home Runs Leader (2011)
- NL RBI Leader (2011)
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (2009-2011)
- 30-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2011)
- 100 RBI Seasons: 2 (2009 & 2011)
- 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (2011)
