BASEBALL
[h1]Matt Kemp is the Dodgers' flight stimulator[/h1]
Harry How / Getty Images
Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp goes into his home-run trot after clearing the bases with a grand slam in the fifth inning Sunday against the Colorado Rockies.
When the Dodgers' five-tool star-in-the-making puts a charge into a baseball, it seems to defy physical laws, as though it might never land. For Matt Kemp, the sky literally is the limit.
By Dylan Hernandez
April 21, 2009
The way Matt Kemp hits a baseball in the air reminds Dodgers Manager Joe Torre of the way Alex Rodriguez hits them. Or the way Mike Piazza, Darryl Strawberry and Dale Murphy used to.
"The ball doesn't come down when he hits it," Torre said. "He's one of those guys that doesn't have to hit it on the screws."
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When hitting coach Don Mattingly is in the batting cages with the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Kemp, he sometimes thinks of Bo Jackson.
"Just stupid stuff they're able to do," Mattingly says, using the word "stupid" to convey the incredible.
Veteran utilityman Doug Mientkiewicz says the 24-year-old center fielder is similar to Torii Hunter of the Angels, only to reconsider moments later.
"He hit for a higher average than Torii did early in his career," says Mientkiewicz, who was Hunter's teammate in Minnesota.
Kemp batted .290 last season, is on a torrid pace this season with a .383 average going into tonight's game against the Houston Astros and is coming off Sunday's performance in which he hit two home runs, including a grand slam. Hunter in 1999-2001, his first three full seasons with the Twins: .255, .280 and .261.
Yet what might be most telling of the expectations Torre, Mattingly and Mientkiewicz have for Kemp is that they refuse to predict what kind of numbers he might one day put up.
"That's not fair for me to put that on him," Torre says.
But . . .
"He's got all the tools of the big players. . . . I don't know what the sky would be on him with his tools."
Can he be one of the 10 best players in baseball?
"Tools-wise, yes," Torre says.
Mattingly: "I don't even want to put numbers out there because it's not fair to him."
But . . .
"There's more there," Mattingly says. "He's got a chance to do some incredible things. He's one of those rare guys who can do everything."
Mientkiewicz: "You don't want to put pressure on him."
But . . .
"He has super-superstar potential."
What's "frightening" -- that is Mientkiewicz's word -- is that Kemp is already producing.
The numbers say it all.
Kemp is the only Dodger to have hit in each of the team's 13 games this season. He has an on-base percentage of .434 and a jaw-dropping slugging percentage of .723. He has belted three home runs, including those two in the Dodgers' sweep-clinching victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, and has driven in 14 runs. He also has stolen four bases.
In his first season as a full-time starter last year, Kemp had 176 hits despite setting a franchise record of 153 strikeouts. He went deep 18 times, drove in 76 runs and stole 35 bases.
But that raises the question: How hard will he work to get better when so much has come so easily?
"He hit .290, he hit almost 20 bombs, drove in almost 90 runs," Mattingly says. "You know what? He's probably going to make a lot of money like that, doing just that."
Mattingly and Kemp had frequent phone conversations over the winter about that very subject.
"He told me as long as I keep working hard and stay focused, the sky's the limit," Kemp says. "He sees a lot of big things coming out of me."
Kemp will be eligible for arbitration for the first time next winter and figures to be in line for a contract similar to the one-year, $3.1-million deal signed by Andre Ethier in February, so long as he doesn't get hurt. But Kemp says the money alone isn't enough.
"I always want more," he says. "You just do. I think people should feel like they should get better every year."
Why?
Kemp points to his parents.
His father, Carl Kemp, used to read electric meters. He now holds a management position in the same company. His mother, Judy Henderson, is a nurse.
"They worked from the bottom up and now they're pretty successful," Kemp says.
Kemp thought that to do the same in his field, he had to spend most of the winter in Los Angeles. The kid from Oklahoma, who said he didn't put much of an emphasis on conditioning in any previous off-season, worked out with a track coach. His early mornings were spent in Encino with his personal hitting coach, former Dodger Reggie Smith.
The work continued in the spring and continues to this day.
Torre says Kemp has shown an increased openness to instruction.
"Last year, I sensed he . . . I'm trying to phrase this the right way . . . he's always been respectful . . . I just think he felt that he knew what he wanted to do," Torre says. "This year's he's more open."
The main point of emphasis these days is to get Kemp's upper and lower body to work together.
"It's like a chain," Mattingly says. "If one part pulls quick, then the other half has to go with it and you get a lot of those rollovers that he had last year."
Kemp left spring training for a day last month to get new sets of contact lenses with an updated prescription, but Mattingly says mechanics, more than eyesight, are to blame for his strikeout totals.
"It's not so much pitch recognition but being in the right position to stop," Mattingly says. "If you're on the move and your head's flying, things are moving, it's hard to say 'ball' or 'strike.' "
It's early, but Kemp is on pace to threaten the strikeout record he set last season; he has whiffed 12 times already, a 150-strikeout pace.
As talented as Kemp might be, progress will be gradual, Mattingly warns.
"It's definitely a challenge because you can't just throw it all out there," Mattingly says. "I want him to understand."
That's something Kemp didn't have to do to get to this point, Mattingly says. He'll have to continue to learn how to better guess the methods pitchers will use to attack him. And any inclination to revert to old habits emphasizing his brawn over his brain will have to be caught immediately.
But Mattingly and Torre say there are clear signs of improvement, particularly in Kemp's focus on using the middle of the field.
"When he's hitting the ball that way," Torre says, gesturing toward center field, "it's a big plus."
Kemp is strong enough to get the ball over the fence when hitting it in that direction. The two homers Kemp hit Sunday were to center and right-center. He homered against Padres ace Jake Peavy on opening day by lifting the ball over the fence in right-center at spacious, pitcher-friendly Petco Park in San Diego.
The home run against Peavy also demonstrated Kemp's increased ability to make in-game adjustments, something Torre says he didn't see much of last year. In his first two at-bats against Peavy, he struck out and flied out. But the third time up, Kemp took him deep.
After that game, Torre summoned Kemp to his office.
A year earlier, Torre had called him to that very office to give Kemp some bad news: He would be sitting when the Dodgers faced Peavy or some other tough right-hander because he too often chased pitches off the plate.
This time, the news was different.
"Matty, remember about a year ago when I called you in here and I gave you all the reasons why you couldn't play against Peavy?" Torre says he told Kemp. "A little reminder, that's all. Nice going."
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