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Fuck Bill Plaschke. Fuck TJ Simers. Fuck the LA Times. Fuck Grady Little. Fuck Ned Colletti. Fuck Frank McCourt. Fuck Jeff Kent. Fuck the Dodgers.
When I read Plaschke’s column Wednesday morning that basically put Matt Kemp in the hangman’s noose, my blood started to boil. How does he have the unmitigated gall to scapegoat Kemp and let the veterans have a free pass just because they have “experience”?
This entire mess became public last week with Jeff Kent opening his yap bemoaning about the youth movement in the Dodgers. According to him it's the inexperience of the youngsters that is the reason for the Dodgers slide. As Molly Knight recounted in the LA Times’ Blue Notes blog, Kent was no upstanding youngster when he came up through the Toronto Blue Jays system and during his subsequent trade to the New York Mets. Even former Dodger-turned-agent Dave Stewart weighed in on Kent’s drivel.
After James Loney and Matt Kemp defended themselves, TJ Simers goes on the attack of these rookies. All of the sudden the unproductive veterans get all the sympathy, and these young whippersnappers steal the veterans' jobs and are so mean we have to start shipping them out to the Minnesota Twins.
What a load of fucking horseshit. Would a line up of Rafael Furcal, Juan Pierre, Kent, Luis Gonzalez, Nomar Garciaparra, Olmedo Saenz, Brady Clark and Mike Lieberthal inspire any fear in the hearts of opposing teams?
Let’s face it. The only reason the Dodgers didn’t start their collapse in May was because the kids started playing. In fact according to Baseball Prospectus, three of the kids (Russell Martin, James Loney and Matt Kemp) are the top 5 Dodgers in VORP (value over replacement player). I further believe that if Andre Ethier, Kemp and Loney had more at-bats, their VORP would be even higher.
Oh talking about VORPs is way to sabermetric, and that's no good right? That's why we got rid of Paul DiPodesta before he could get anything started here. But that's a topic for another day.
Let's get this straight right now. Getting rid of the youngsters and allowing the veterans to rule the roost will bring the Dodgers back to the glorious days of the FOX ownership. You remember those days when the Dodgers traded away Paul Konerko and gave huge contracts to Darren Dreifort and Kevin Brown?
By the way, Russell Martin won the Roy Campanella award given to the most inspirational Dodger as voted by his teammates. I wonder how many times Jeff Kent voted for himself.
Oh and Takashi Saito is a finalist for MLB Delivery Man of the Year awarded to the most outstanding relief pitcher for the season as voted by the fans. Go here to vote.
AP Photo by Danny Moloshok
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dump kent. dump grady. A happy and prosperous dodgers' future includes neither one of those guys. Bring on Dusty Baker.
I don't know about Dusty -- these writers would love it -- the guy hates playing the young studs and seems to have wet dreams about losers like Kent and the befallen Neifi Perez.
Canning Drew was a great move. But to fully cleanse the team, Kent's gotta go. Trade for a pitcher. A young pitcher. Drop Kent and pick up Dontrelle. Something. Anything. Obviously these writers haven't been paying much attention to the Cubs, who are playoff-bound because their roster is balanced with fine young talent, not in spite of it.
HALLELUJAH!
I really don't know what those writers are thinking. It just pisses me off they would even think about scapegoating the young kids when it's been more than evident the veterans are not pulling their weight around on the team.
They say that Kent still has good numbers, but as a clean up hitter he's horrible! If there is only one player move this off season, I hope it's getting rid of him. I've never liked Kent and wouldn't shed a tear for his departure.
BTW, I think it's funny that with the writers blaming Kemp for his baserunning blunders they're not referencing the biggest base running blunder by the Dodgers this decade. Last year in Game 1 of the NLDS in the first inning, remember that 9-4-2-2 double play? And if I remember it was JD Drew and Jeff Kent making both outs at home plate within seconds of each other.