Sign of the Times: Matt Kemp Cashes In

In an endless competition, a dog-eat-dog world, the "market value" of ballplayers are generally on the rise. 

Matt Kemp signed a $160 million payday Friday to remain with the Dodgers, the team that selected him in the sixth round of the 2003 draft. 

The contract runs through the 2019 season. 

Kemp is a rare breed of speed, power and accuracy offensively and defensively. He is a two-time Gold Glover in center field and has won a pair of silver sluggers. 

Another award might soon be his, too. The NL MVP will be announced Nov. 22. 

His 2011 stat line of .324, 39 home runs, 126 RBI, 115 runs and 40 stolen bases is Howard Roark (The Foutainhead) impressive -- singularly and individually his own, marked by transcendent beauty, in a league now dominated by pitching. 

Kemp is also an everyday employee. Since becoming a a full-time starter prior to the 2008 season, Kemp has played in all but 11 games. 

If anyone has the talent and durability to fulfill an eight year contract worth $20 million per annum, it's Kemp. 

Like with any big deal, what you see or have seen, isn't necessarily what you'll get moving forward. 

There are always untold injuries and outstanding circumstances that can change a promising, reasonable deal into a good stiffing. 

Los Angeles remembers Jason Schmidt. 

That $47 million contract caused endless buyer's remorse. 

Around the league there have been untold tales of injuries sending players home with little to show for a fat wallet. There's Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Erik Bedard and Justin Morneau recently. Carl Pavano, too. The list goes on. 

Those types of poison arrows cannot always be avoided. 

It's the play for money, not love, types that are most worrisome -- those who play best in contract years and then, like a shadow after dusk, disappear until the next time the sun rises on another big pay day.

Kemp, when it comes to baseball, seems to choose love over money. On a good track record, there is one blemish, though: the 2010 season.  

At the plate, Kemp let strikes pass through the hitting zone without as much as a flinch a little more and remained disciplined at balls off the plate a little less. On the bases Kemp carefully chose his spots to run a little less and was thrown out a lot more. In the field Kemp made spectacular plays a little less and jogged, rather than ran, to balls hit past him a little more. 

In all, Kemp posted a career lows in average (.249), slugging (.450) and fielding (.981) and career highs in strikeouts (170) and caught stealing (15 in 34 attempts) since becoming a starter. 

Maybe it was dating Rihanna, maybe it was the team's ongoing management issues. Maybe it was a down year. 

Whatever the case, it's the one scar on an otherwise smooth start to a career and big time payday for Los Angeles' franchise center fielder.