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Brian Kamenetsky from Blue Notes kindly passed along these quotes from Ned Colletti today.
On the young guys in the lineup:
"We know where Russell Martin is, obviously. (Andre) Ethier is a guy who's played almost two years in the big leagues. So we're pretty sure where they're at. They're starting to get a dynamic with who they are going forward. I think (James) Loney's last month was really impressive. There's a lot of impatience with a guy like Matt Kemp because of his skills, but when you think about how short his baseball playing career has really been, he did hit .340 in the big leagues over two plus months. There's not a lot of people doing that. So I think as time goes on here, they have a chance to be major players on this club ...
"Where they're at, we're fine with. They have to continue to do it. They're not complete. They can't just come in here and think that they're not going to have to continue to work and continue to grow and continue to understand the game better. And forget a little about personal accomplishment and more about figuring out how to win the game ...
It almost seems like the praise for Kemp is backhanded or reluctant, but maybe I'm misinterpreting. I mean, I don't know how you get impatient about a player who OPSes around .900 at age 23. Of course, if Colletti were planning to trade Kemp, the last thing he should be doing is putting him down. So maybe this is just part of the program to keep Kemp humble and hard-working for next year. Honestly, I don't know.
Kamenetsky asked whether there was less need for one-year filler types like Luis Gonzalez in the outfield.
"I think less. I can't predict who's going to be available or who we're going to bring in here, but I think as time has gone on, the younger players have more and more established themselves, and I think there's less need to continue to support them in the same manner. You still need players, you still need good players, but I sense that the younger players are starting to gain on it."
You can hear more audio from Colletti and Joe Torre at the Kamenetsky brothers' blog.
It's a very PC response, so I'll give him credit for giving the "right" response.
What's the term for getting the first post? "Logikreader'd?"
Still, this gives me hope. The less he does, the better.
This paragraph worries me:
"Where they're at, we're fine with. They have to continue to do it. They're not complete. They can't just come in here and think that they're not going to have to continue to work and continue to grow and continue to understand the game better. And forget a little about personal accomplishment and more about figuring out how to win the game ...
You assume this will happen. Why wouldn't you? And why would a GM say something like this? It sounds like a veiled accusation that the kids have been slacking.
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