Ned Coletti Isn't Happy With Matt Kemp

It's been a rough start to the season with the Dodgers. They've had to deal with the divorce in the owner's suite and the belt tightening that has been a result of the feuding McCourts. Their bullpen, outside of Jonathan Broxton, has been awful and now Manny Ramirez is on the disabled list to make things more difficult.

It's all enough to make general manager Ned Colletti point some fingers of blame. That's understandable. Less understandable is his choice of targets. Matt Kemp is the only guy feeling the fury from the man upstairs.

"Some guys, I guess, think that they're better than they are. They think the opposition's just going to roll over and get beat by them. That obviously doesn't happen. The baserunning's below average," Colletti said. "The defense is below average. Why is it? Because he got a new deal? I can't tell you."

A little buyer's remorse, Neddie?

The Dodgers got swept in a doubleheader by the Mets on Tuesday and Kemp contributed mightily to the loss in the second game. He wandered off second base on a ground ball to the shortstop during the fourth inning to help give away an out as Oliver Perez was giving away the store at home plate. He was also less than aggressive in charging a couple of singles up the middle, even though he was playing shallow to begin with, and the Mets took bases that eventually led to runs.

Colletti actually gave that radio interview before Tuesday's games, so it wasn't all a big overreaction to Kemp's mistakes. It was, however, a case of picking one guy when there's a whole team worth of underperformers worthy of getting ripped. The Dodgers have scored 10 runs in their last five games, four of which were losses, and Kemp isn't the only guy responsible for that.

Later in that same interview, Colletti said it was too soon to panic and start looking for deals to bolster the pitching staff. Specifically, he said that it was too soon to jump to conclusions which is probably something worth remembering before you decide to accuse a player of jaking it in the midst of a team-wide malaise.

UPDATE: Kemp weighed in on Colletti's comments to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times:

"The new deal, that has nothing to do with anything," Kemp said. "Of course it's good to make money, but that's not why I started playing this game. I started playing this game because I love the game, and I'm going to continue to love this game. People don't know what goes on. People don't know what time I show up to the stadium. I'm here, I'm here working, I'm here trying to get ready for the game."

Now we'll wait for Colletti's "clarification" and extend this a little bit longer. It's a good lesson on why general managers shouldn't air their dirty laundry in public. Kemp has had some terrible moments in the field this season and ripping him is just fine. Just do it behind closed doors.

The Dodgers and Mets are playing a matinee on Wednesday. Just in case you thought Kemp really was the only problem with the team, we'll point out that Jon Ely is making his big league debut and that Joe Torre has Russell Martin leading off in an attempt to get something going offensively.