By J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer
A funny thing happened on the way to September: Matt Kemp became the Dodgers' youngest position player.
Perhaps surprisingly, until Tim Federowicz (born August 1987) was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque to become the team's third catcher as rosters expanded Sept. 1, Kemp (born September 1984) was younger than any non-pitcher on the active roster.
By itself, that doesn't mean much, especially since Kemp has been in the major leagues for six years. But it brought into sharp focus just how much the Dodgers' clubhouse has transformed this season - from an assortment of up-and-comers (Dee Gordon, Jerry Sands) and minor-league vagabonds (Elian Herrera, Justin Sellers) pressed into major-league duty, to a potent lineup led by several established stars.
Handling a new mix of personalities presents a new challenge for manager Don Mattingly besides filling out the lineup card, knowing when to pull the starting pitcher and winning games in the midst of a September playoff hunt.
"Everybody's individually different," Mattingly said. "A kid that's coming up for the first time or in a first year, you're having a lot of different conversations with that kid than you would with a guy that has six years under his belt and has been accomplished. They're definitely different conversations, but we're all on the same boat still. So we've all got to get on that page, that we're all headed for that one spot."
If there's a generalization to be made
about those "different conversations" they seem to be more simple and more frequent.Only the outfielders were absent when players gathered for a meeting on the Dodger Stadium infield Aug.22, three days before Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto boarded a chartered plane bound for Los Angeles. What followed was a basic spring-training drill, with pitchers coming off the mound to field bunts, catchers telling them where to throw the ball and infielders shuffling to (hopefully) the right base.
Even though the whole team took part, Mattingly said the meeting and the drill were specifically staged for the four players who weren't Dodgers in spring training - pitchers Joe Blanton, Brandon League and Randy Choate, and infielder Hanley Ramirez. (Shane Victorino was excluded because he's an outfielder).
Mattingly held a pair of closed-door team meetings last week. The first came after an uninspired 2-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The message was nothing profound - "concentrate on the game, play hard" in the words of Juan Rivera.
The second was just among the eight new Dodgers, in which Mattingly addressed the urgency of entering September 4<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>2 games out of first place in the division.
"It was a little odd when we first got Hanley and Shane and Brandon and Choatey. You get four new guys there," Mattingly said. "You lose some of these guys' best friends. (Josh) Lindblom leaves. ... Sending Tony Gwynn down, sending Bobby Abreu down, kind of been good fixtures and guys who have played with a lot of emotions, and good people.
"So you lose those guys, then you get new guys and all of a sudden there's another influx of three guys. It's like another adjustment period."
The Dodgers had a golden opportunity to catalyze the adjustment period when they won games in their final at-bat Sunday and Monday. On-field celebrations of walk-off hits, by definition, tend to bring a team together, but the positive vibes were squandered in losses to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The wins and losses say it's been a rocky transition. Credit Mattingly for at least keeping the lines of communication open and the new players for being receptive.
Mattingly, a lifetime .307 hitter and longtime batting coach, revealed he's already learned something new about hitting talking to Gonzalez.
"He made it as easy as possible, as far as communication, making me feel comfortable," Gonzalez added. "I knew that the guys loved playing for him. I knew that guys loved him as a hitting coach and during the transition to a manager it carried over."
jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com
twitter.com/jphoornstra
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