With the team five games under .500, highlighting the Dodger pitching woes is an offense that is third in MLB in hits and batting average.
Despite those facts, General Manager Ned Colletti chose to lash out at Matt Kemp on Wednesday for his poor play on a L.A. radio show. (Kemp is currently hitting .292 and second in the major leagues with seven home runs.)
Not surprisingly, Kemp and his agent Dave Stewart were distinctly displeased with Colletti’s seemingly misplaced priorities. Stewart went so far to hint that Colletti’s comments might come into play once Kemp is contractually free to leave the team.
So what was it that had Kemp and Stewart so upset?
Wednesday morning on KABC-AM radio in L.A., Colletti said of Kemp:
“Some guys, I guess, think that they’re better than they are. They think the opposition’s just going to roll over and get beat by them. That obviously doesn’t happen. The baserunning’s below average. The defense is below average. Why is it? Because he got a new deal? I can’t tell you.”
That “new deal” was a $10M, two-year contract. Paltry in comparison to many MLB players with similar production to Kemp.
What the hell, Ned? The pitching is terrible, it's not freaking Matt's fault. And the agent holds sway over Billingsly too:
“When it comes time for Matt to arbitrate two years from now, we’re going to look at that situation and do what’s best for Matt. When it comes time for Matt to be a free agent three years from now, we’re going to look at that situation in the same way as I would with Chad Billingsley, my other client on that ballclub.
“This kind of thing in all the years I’ve been in baseball has never happened with any general manager on any team I’ve ever played on where you single out a player and you hold him accountable for the outcome of what 24 other players are doing as well. There are 25 players on a team.”
Fire Ned, I say. Matt is a guy we will want here longer than a loud mouth GM with limited success.
— Mags