Player Profile: Matt Kemp

Matt Kemp was born on September 23, 1984 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. He went to Midwest City High School and was a great baseball and basketball player. He was teammates with Shelden Williams of the Boston Celtics on his high school basketball team. Matt Kemp never attended college and decided to go for baseball rather than basketball and was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 6th round in the 2003 draft and signed with them on June 5, 2003. After a few years in the minor leagues, Kemp made the major league roster in 2007 but lost his place when he got injured by running into an outfield fence at Dodger Stadium. He was then sent to Las Vegas and wasn't called back up to the majors until mid-June. Matt Kemp then had a great season with a nice .342 batting average, 10 home runs, and 42 RBIs while sharing playing time with Andre Ethier.

Going into 2008, Matt Kemp was expected to battle for one of the corner outfield positions, but was most likely to play in right field. He was named NL Player of the Week for the week of April 28 to May 4, when he drove in 11 runs and stole 6 bases. After Andruw Jones got a knee injury, Kemp took the starting center field position. Over the course of the season, Matt Kemp started to build his speed and ended the season with 35 stolen bases, the second most on the team next to Juan Pierre.

On September 24 of the 2009 season, Matt Kemp became the first player in Dodger history to hit at least .295, with 25 home runs, 100 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases in one season. Kemp hit his first postseason home run on October 7 in his first at bat of the National League Divisional Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. After the 2009 season, he was selected as a recipient of both the Golden Glove Award and the Silver Slugger Award. Matt Kemp is surely one of the best players on the Dodgers' roster right now, and is definitely one of my favorite players.