Letters: Matt Kemp trade leaves them blue

The one thing Andrew Friedman accomplished this week with all his moves was to clear enough salary space so as to justify himself and his band of geeks for the next few years. Seriously, why else would a GM trade a Matt Kemp to a division rival for nothing in return?

Pete Russo

San Clemente

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Let me get this straight. We’re paying a division rival $32 million to take a power-hitting All-Star off of our hands and receiving a .225 hitter who throws out 13% of base-stealers in return?

Rich Hardt

Long Beach

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Will someone please take away the kiddies’ Monopoly board and money before the Dodgers become Mediterranean Avenue?

Howard P. Cohen

North Hills

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Bill Plaschke’s hysterical piece on the Kemp trade was both flawed and embarrassing to him. His man crush on Kemp has clouded his judgment. Kemp sparkled at moments, this is true; but, he was often hurt and even when not often disappointed. Plaschke acts like unloading Kemp’s salary was a bad result, when in fact it creates room for the pieces the Dodgers need a lot more than a fifth outfielder whose effort in center was often lacking.

If Plaschke will just give it a rest, I’ll buy him a bus ticket to San Diego so he can go on a date with Kemp.

John T. Lewis

Arcadia

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It must be comforting to Bill Plaschke to know that while the ink was still drying on his article pleading for the Dodgers to keep Matt Kemp, Kemp was being traded to the Padres. Bill, you’d better get to know those “new guys” in the Dodgers’ management team, and please don’t write an article about how the Dodgers need to keep Clayton Kershaw!

Brian Thompson

Compton

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Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi can tinker with the Dodger roster until they are “Blue” in the face, but until they get us a new manager, what is the point? Does anybody not think that Donnie Baseball’s mishandling of the pitching staff cost us the division series? Why do open-heart surgery on a patient that is brain dead? I don’t care how nice he is. Let Donnie go be nice someplace else.

Larry Weiner

Culver City

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Wouldn’t it have been better if the Dodgers traded Matt Kemp to Time Warner Cable for a TV package all of us Dodgers fans can watch?

Manny Katz

Encino

Playoffs?

The only thing the College Football Playoff committee succeeded in with their final playoff rankings — never mind for a moment the Texas Christian debacle — was sending a mixed message by opting for Ohio State over Baylor for the fourth slot. Consider this: The committee rewarded the arguably weaker conference by admitting the Buckeyes primarily because of their lopsided rout of Wisconsin ... in their conference’s championship game! How strong can a conference be when its second-best team gets rolled by nearly 60 points?

Bob Cunningham

Riverside

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I believe that the committee got it right, and for a reason no one has yet mentioned. The top four teams played 13 games each, winning at least 12, while Baylor and TCU played 12, winning only 11. That should be enough reason to exclude them from the playoff.

Ray Uhler

Rancho Santa Margarita

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The management of Pac-12 football continues to be a laughingstock. They have lagged well behind the other major conferences in bowl game affiliations. Their referees are flag-happy jokes. And now their second-team linebacker, Eric Kendricks of UCLA, has won the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

Losing Lakers

Vince Lombardi once said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” The Lakers are professional basketball players whose futures or legacies are determined by their actions on the court. Magic Johnson was one of the all-time greats on the court, but by saying he hopes that “the Lakers lose every game” he has joined Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas in their lack of basketball acumen after their playing careers are over.

Michael Gamboa

Buena Park

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If the NBA wants to prevent teams like Philadelphia from intentionally throwing a season to get high draft picks, the solution is simple. Implement relegation, as is used in European sports leagues. Not only is it a strong incentive to field a competitive team, it also makes the end-of-the-season games for teams at the bottom of the table as interesting as those at the top. The threat of being dropped from the NBA to the D-league would be a strong motivation to forgo intentional losses.

Lee Aydelotte

Huntington Beach

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Magic says sacrifice the season and lose the rest of the games to procure a top draft choice. I say refund ticket money for the amateur hour performances.

Larry Ackerman

Beverlywood

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Kobe’s tirade against his teammates and Mitch Kupchak brings up a question: Because he wants to win so badly and has absolutely no chance here, why in these last 10 minutes of his career doesn’t he demand a trade out of Dodge?

Marty Foster

Ventura

NFL justice

The NFL should not be in the business of investigating crimes or punishing players for committing them. Any player charged with a crime or arrested for one should not be allowed to engage in team activities until he is cleared or has paid the penalty imposed by law. This would keep miscreants out of the game and Roger Goodell out of the judge’s chair.

John Marias

Santa Monica

Messages

Memo to Kobe:

Instead of wearing a warmup T-shirt that reads “I can’t breathe,” perhaps you should wear a shirt that reads “I can’t shoot.”

Dennis Katz

Pacific Palisades

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Dear pro athletes,

It gives me great pleasure to watch you perform. I watch pro sports to get my mind off the everyday drudgeries of politics, religion, crime and the other mundane things that confront all of us on a daily basis.

If you want to make sociopolitical statements with your uniforms on, paint me gone.

Tom Anderson

Manhattan Beach

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