Kemp to the Padres

Baseball moves are happening left and right, with the Dodgers and Red Sox making the most. I mentioned visiting Dodger stadium about 10 years ago which led me to follow the team through the years. While they fall below the Orioles and Braves on my favorite teams list, I do have a few small player collections of certain Dodgers such as Shawn Green, Cesar Izturis, Paul Lo Duca, Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Matt Kemp. 

By now you've probably seen that Kemp was dealt to the Padres earlier today. I don't know much about the guys the Dodgers are getting in return, but I do know that without Kemp the Dodgers are lacking power in their lineup. It looks like the players coming in return for Kemp may not remain with the Dodgers anyway.

But as we've seen the last of Kemp in a Dodgers uniform for now, I thought I'd share some Kemp cards from my collection. 

We start off with a pretty card from Bowman's Best, #'d out of 499. The back shows some power stats from his days with Single A Columbus. In 2004 he hit one homer for every 24.9 at-bats, compared to the Single A average of 48.1 at-bats. Fun fact, Matt Kemp and I are the same height at 6 foot 4, according to this card.

Turkey Red is a favorite set of mine. I opened a box of the basketball version of this set, pulling cards of some of the all-time basketball greats. Glad to have this Kemp rookie in my collection.

Wasn't going to make it through this post without showing a card from Heritage, this one from 2007. This Heritage card says that Kemp is just 6 foot 2. Hmm.

I probably could have ordered these cards better, as now we are back to a First Year card from 2005 Topps Update. 

My favorite card of the bunch is easily this Allen & Ginter relic from 2010. Just a beautiful card, and one of the few relics in any of my baseball player collections. 

The back of this Topps 52 Kemp from 2006 notes his hot start after being called up from Jacksonville. Kemp hit .375 with 7 HRs in his first 16 games with the Dodgers. 

His totals in 9 years with the Dodgers: 182 HRs, 648 RBIs, 170 stolen bases (most of which came between 2008-2011), 1188 hits, and a .292 average. Will be strange to see him in another uniform, particularly one in the same division. 

We will see what the pieces end up bringing back to the Dodgers.