Wednesday, March 02, 2011

All Kemp, All The Time

In our third Matt Kemp post of the day, let us call your attention to Mark Simon's ESPN.com article, Matt Kemp's Defense Cause For Concern:

Matt Kemp isn’t just in need of an offensive improvement in 2011. As Jerry Crasnick alluded to in his piece on Tuesday, Kemp is in need of an upgrade on the defensive side as well.

Kemp's defensive numbers slipped as much as his offensive ones did in 2010. Baseball Info Solutions (BIS), which charts every batted ball in the major leagues based on how frequently it was turned into an out, rated Kemp 35th in its +/- among the 35 center fielders who played the most innings last season.

Kemp finished at -12. That means he made 12 fewer plays on batted balls than the average center fielder (leading to 23 total bases for opposing hitters).

That’s just part of a two-year decline for Kemp, who ranked 17th in that stat in 2008 and 28th in 2009. [...]

Kemp finished last season with 27 Good Fielding Plays and 33 Defensive Misplays and Errors. His -6 "net rating" tied for eighth-worst out of 106 players who appeared in center field last season. Kemp’s biggest issues were dealing with outfield fences (he had six "wall misplays," tied for second-most in the majors) and failing to hang on to the ball once he got a glove on it (which happened five times in 2010).

The article also has a sidebar table which shows "Baserunners vs. Matt Kemp" in 2009 and 2010. Based partially on extra bases taken and runners thrown out advancing, the numbers are chilling; Kemp had a "Runs Saved" quotient of 9 in 2009--good enough for 2nd in the majors--but a decline to -2 Runs Saved in 2010, which was 27th in MLB.

We opined earlier this year that Kemp would go back to playing the field in 2011, so to speak. But in all seriousness, let's hope any our new cleanup hitter is as focused in centerfield (or left field, if that's where Kemp ends up) as he can be at the plate.

7 comments:

Josh S. said...

Hey guys, anything new with Matt Kemp?

Hook a brother up with some info please.

Unknown said...

I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET MY KEMP FIX EVER SINCE HE DELETED HIS TWITTER! ARGGGGGGG!!!

Mr. Doctor said...

Damnit, signed into the wrong account!

rbnlaw said...

I heard he broke up with that gal what sings.
True?

I wish there was a blog dedicated to Matt Kemp where I could just go on any given Wednesday and read about my favorite underachieving center fielder.

Le sigh.

Steve Sax said...

rbnlaw, you bring up a point that hasn't been made for a long time...

Oh my God, why don't you start a Matt Kemp Wednesday News blog and report his news on that blog.

spank said...

Angela Merkin

Nostradamus said...

If there were really a Kanzler Merkin, Germany might finally be able to close the east-west divide.