Getting to Know JetHawks 2B Tony Kemp

I once had a "conversation" with Tony Kemp's brother Corey on twitter. I remember him saying that people have always underestimated Tony. It's easy to see why. Much like another diminutive second baseman with whom Astros fans are quite familiar, Kemp is of small stature, but he makes up for that in a lot of ways.

Lancaster Hitting Coach Darryl Robinson first saw Kemp last fall, "I remember in instructional ball thinking, 'Who's this little guy? Where'd this little guy come from?' Sure enough, he starts swinging the bat and I'm like, 'OK, that's who this little guy is.'"

Manager Rodney Linares got his first look at Kemp in Spring Training and wasn't convinced at all, asserting that if you judge Kemp by watching him in practice you will be sorely disappointed, "You cannot watch him in practice. There's a saying that my Dad always used to tell me that the only thing that does not apply in baseball is the rule that you cannot make a first impression twice. In baseball, you can." Even when Kemp first got to Lancaster, Linares was still leery for the first couple of days, "This guy's gonna be my lead off hitter? Woof!"

But minor league Managers Omar Lopez and Ed Romero, as well as Astros Player Development's Quinton McCracken and Allen Rowin all assured Linares that Kemp would be a gamer for him and Linares admitted, "He's been as good as advertised. He works the counts. He's not afraid to hit with two strikes and that's, for me, his biggest tool is that he's not afraid. Not only to hit with two strikes, he's not afraid to try anything new. He's not afraid to experiment. We're working on shifts [so] now I have him, in order to get his arm stronger because he has to make longer throws, I have him taking ground balls at short early in the day and he's doing a throwing program with Donnie [Pitching Coach Don Alexander]. So there's a lot of things he's doing to get better, but he is not afraid to do it. He's going to make the adjustments necessary to find a way to play in the big leagues."

Robinson told me that Kemp knows who he is as a hitter, "He's a lead off guy. That's who he is. And he's going to do everything he needs to do to get on base whether it's a walk [or] a hit by pitch. He's going to get his base hits. He's going to steal bags. Kemp is one of those guys who's going to spread the ball all over the field. He's going to be that little gnat. He's going to wear you out. He's going to wear you down. He's going to bunt. He's going to hit doubles. He's going to hit some triples. Of course, he's going to get some base hits every where. He's going to move runners when he has to. He's just an exciting player." Linares added, "And he has some surprising power. For a little guy, when you look at him, his home runs have been legit. The home runs that he's hit, they've been bombs. They haven't been cheap 'Lancaster home runs.'"

According to Linares, Kemp's defense still needs some work and noted, "He could be a lot better, but he is making the necessary adjustments to get better." Robinson has noticed how hard Kemp works to get better, "I watch him in BP all the time and he works on running and sliding, catching a ground ball coming towards first base. He does it every day at least once a BP. [In a recent game] a ball was hit and, sure enough, he does the little slide, comes up and throws to first base. I see him doing little things like that which is going to pay off for him in the long run. I love working with him."

I talked to Kemp at the end of May and one of the things we spoke about was his Vanderbilt teammate 1B Conrad Gregor who, not surprisingly, was promoted from Quad Cities to Lancaster shortly after this video was recorded. The two Vandy guys have now been reunited and are both tearing up the California League. [I apologize for the audio; I tried to clean it up as much as possible. The Lancaster wind strikes again!]




In one final note, I mentioned to Robinson how smart Kemp is and he quickly agreed and noted that Kemp's intelligence and talent together make for a "deadly combination." I think the California League pitchers would agree with that assertion, and I think they will agree that one underestimates Kemp at one's own peril. [For more on Kemp, here is my July 2013 interview with him.]