Sports Frog

When attempting to explain why the Dodgers have failed to live up to expectations this year, the following reasons come immediately to mind:

--James Loney and Matt Kemp starting the year in Las Vegas while first base and center field were occupied by Nomar Garciaparra and Juan Pierre, respectively.

--Juan Pierre hitting near the top of the line-up despite his inability either to draw walks or to hit for any kind of power at all.

--Chad Billingsley hanging out in the bullpen until the end of June.

--Not playing Kemp and Andre Ethier every day. (Ideally, their primary outfield alignment would be Luis Gonzalez, Kemp, and Ethier. For Grady Little to go that route instead of always playing Pierre in center and having a rotation of Kemp, Ethier, and Gonzalez in the corner spots, however, would require him to recognize Juan Pierre's shortcomings, and Pierre has performed exactly as Little and Ned Colletti expected him to. That's not meant in a complimentary way.)

A reason that wouldn't have in a million years crossed my mind:

--The Dodgers' young players "don't get it."

I suspect the reason why I never would have considered that as a cause of the Dodgers' struggles is because the notion that their young players, all of whom have been productive this year, are the reason why they've been mathematically eliminated from contention for the National League West title with a week left in the season is beyond laughable. Jeff Kent, however, sage veteran that he is, sees things differently:

"I don't know what it is, especially when you have a lot" of young players, said Kent, whose double Thursday raised his average to .298 to go along with a team-high 20 home runs and 78 runs batted in. "It's hard to influence a big group. We've got some good kids on the team. Don't get me wrong, please don't misinterpret my impressions. [But] it's hard to translate experience.

"I don't know why they don't get it."

Asked what they don't get, Kent said: "A lot of things. Professionalism. How to manufacture a run. How to keep your emotions in it. There's just a lot of things that go on with playing 162 games.

"But I think experience can help more than inexperience. And it's hard to give a young kid experience."

You know what else would help, Jeffrey? Your beloved veterans being able to translate their experience into quality production offensively. Juan Pierre, even after his month-long singles barrage, has only a .292/.330/.354 line this year. Luis Gonzalez was fine in the first half of the season; in the second half, however, he has a .247/.310/.367 line, yet he continues to take away playing time from Matt Kemp. But way to set a positive example for your younger teammates. Because nothing screams "professionalism" like attempting to use your teammates as scapegoats for the team's failures.

Just for goofs, let's have a look at the Value Over Replacement Player (VORP)--a metric which measures how many runs a player has produced compared to a replacement-level player at the same position--of various position players on the Dodgers (plate appearances in parentheses):

Martin, Russell 47.4 (598)
Kent, Jeff 39.0 (559)
Loney, James 25.5 (344)
Kemp, Matt 20.8 (284)
Ethier, Andre 15.8 (485)
Gonzalez, Luis 14.8 (524)
Pierre, Juan 13.3 (697)
Furcal, Rafael 11.6 (643)
Betemit, Wilson 7.8 (192)
Garciaparra, Nomar 1.4 (465)

(To provide a little context, Alex Rodriguez's VORP of 91.8 is the highest position-player VORP; Alex Rios's VORP of 37.0 is the 50th-highest position-player VORP; and Paul Konerko's VORP of 24.7 is the 100th-highest position-player VORP.)

Sadly, VORP doesn't take into account how adept players are at keeping their emotions in it. But as their respective VORPs indicate, both Loney and Kemp, despite having a relatively low number of plate appearances, have been more valuable offensively than every player except Martin and Kemp. Furthermore, the veterans who are upset about losing playing time--Gonzalez and Garciaparra--hardly have the "they make up for their offensive ineptitude with their defensive brilliance" card to play.

Have the young players made a few bone-headed plays? Sure. Kemp has made several base-running errors, while Loney has been surprisingly shaky at times defensively. But to imply that they, and not completely inept player-personnel and playing-time decisions, are the primary reason why the Dodgers are going to fall short this year is patently absurd.

Happily, Loney and Kemp don't feel compelled to play the "deferential young player" role:

Asked if it bothered him to be criticized by one of the team's leaders, Loney said of Kent, "Who said he was a leader?"

Said Kemp: "If you take the younger guys away, do you have a team?"