Dodgers need Kemp to have a contact year

PHOENIX -- Leading off for the Dodgers, and striking out much of the time, Matt Kemp.

Kemp began Saturday night's game with 344 at bats, striking out 104 times -- third-most in the National League this season.

If Kemp, who has beat-it-out speed, makes contact in half of those instances, "I'd be amazing," he said.

If Kemp cuts down his strikeouts, he's probably one of the best offensive players in the game, already hitting .285 in his second full year in the big leagues after posting a .342 average last year.

So much talent, and he begins the game against the Diamondbacks striking out on three pitches.

End of the game, tying run on third and go-ahead run on first, two out and Kemp gets a big moment early in his career with the chance to put the Dodgers alone in first place.

He doesn't strike out. Progress. But he does fly out to right on the first pitch. Game over, Dodgers lose.

"I have no problem with that," Manager Joe Torre said. "You have to like Matt Kemp; he's not shy about being put in that position."

That's what I say, you have to like Matt Kemp, but not everyone around here agrees.

"I'm mad; wouldn't you be -- if you lost?" Kemp said, and there are some people around here who will be surprised to hear it made a difference to Kemp whether the Dodgers won or lost.

"He made a good pitch," he said. "It was over the middle of the plate and it ran in on my hands. I'll be back tomorrow for another pitcher, another game, but I'm still mad."

And so goes the development of Matt Kemp. Future superstar, who is still learning, or the ultimate heartbreaker, who never lives up to expectations?

I asked Torre, based on his lifelong baseball knowledge, to hazard a guess on which way Kemp will go, and surprisingly he began talking about former Dodger and Angel, Devon White.

"Whitey Herzog once told me, he's the kind of player that gets a manager fired," Torre said, and so I said, I can see the headline now: "Torre predicts Kemp to get him fired."

Instead of ripping pen and notebook out of my hand and asking for an interview do-over, Torre let his story linger as is -- the great promise of Kemp in reality meaning a whole lot to a whole lot of people around here.

"You can't teach what he does; when he hits the ball, it stays in the air a long time," Torre said, but obviously it would help if he hit the ball more often.