Jeff Kent Determined To Prove TJ Simers Wrong

Okay Orel, I'll see your laudatory post on youngster Matt Kemp, and raise you one critical post on veteran Jeff Kent....

August 17: TJ Simers gets into it with ornery veteran Jeff Kent about how Kent's batting average had skyrocketed since he started batting third ahead of Manny Ramirez:

"[Vin] Scully is making the same point everyone else is making," I said. "He says the stats indicate you are having success hitting behind Ramirez -- tell me that isn't the case."

"See my answer to the first question," said Kent, and sometimes you wonder if he sleeps with his bed against a wall forcing him to always wake up on the wrong side. "Listen, I'm so tired of talking about this stuff. It diminishes my whole career and all the hard work. I take it as an insult.

"I'm 40. You don't get better when you are 40."

Discounting the remainder of the series in batter-friendly Colorado, Jeff Kent's lines since then:

Aug 22 @PHI, 0-for-4
Aug 23 @PHI, 0-for-4, 2K
Aug 24 @PHI, 3-for-5, but 1 GIDP
Aug 25 @PHI, 1-for-5, 2K
Aug 26 @WAS, 1-for-4
Aug 27 @WAS, 0-for-5, K
6-game total: 5-for-27, .185 BA, 5Ks, 1 GIDP

You show him, Jeffy! Don't concede that point to Simers, and continue to phone it in from the three-hole!