Dodgers manager Don Mattingly knows a little something about the MVP race. He won the award in 1985 when he hit .324 with 35 homers, 48 doubles and 145 RBIs for the New York Yankees and easily beat out runner-up George Brett in the voting.
Mattingly also finished as high as second in the voting (1986), fifth (1984) and seventh (1987).
Ask him who the National League MVP is this year and he doesn't hesitate: "Matt Kemp."
Mattingly might be a little biased, considering Kemp plays for him, but he said a player's stats are as important as anything when making a pick. Kemp went into Monday's game against the San Diego Padres hitting .320 with 31 homers, 100 RBIs and 34 stolen bases.
Kemp has a chance to become only the fifth player in major league history to join the 40-homer, 40-stolen base club. The others are Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006). Kemp is on pace for 38 homers and 41 steals.
"I look at a guy's numbers,"
Mattingly said. "With Matt, look at the year he's had. Is it the best year in the league or not? How many more wins do we have compared to a Prince (Fielder) or (Ryan) Braun (in Milwaukee)?"
"You can cut it all different ways, but I look at the total package. The MVP is stat-based. If you've been the best player in the league, you must be the MVP."
Cy Young, too?
Despite the team's struggles, the Dodgers have a chance
to pull off a rare double victory with the league's top two individual awards as Clayton Kershaw, 16-5 with a 2.51 ERA going into Monday's game, is a candidate for the Cy Young Award.
The Los Angeles Dodgers actually have won both awards in the same year before - Kirk Gibson (MVP) and Orel Hershiser (Cy Young) in 1988, Steve Garvey (MVP) and Mike Marshall (Cy Young) in 1974 and Maury Wills (MVP) and Don Drysdale (Cy Young) in 1962. Sandy Koufax won the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1963.
Kershaw figures to have six more starts this season, but Mattingly said he'll be watching the left-hander closely down the stretch and not push him in otherwise meaningless games.
"He's going to have more innings than he's ever pitched,"
Mattingly said. "If he throws every inning possible throughout the season, what's that worth?"
Mattingly scoffed when asked if he would pitch Kershaw on short rest if he had 19 victories and only a few games remained in the season.
"Yeah, I'll pitch him on two days' rest ... then I'll get fired,"
he said.
Injury updates
Infielder Juan Uribe (strained hip flexor) is not able to run at 100 percent, and Mattingly said surgery is an option if the injury doesn't get better.
Reliever Jonathan Broxton is throwing off flat ground and could return to the active roster late in the season.
Series continues
The Dodgers and Padres resume their series at 7:10 p.m. today.
