Matt Kemp

Going into the season, Kemp was expected to battle for one of the corner outfield positions, though his spot in right field was essentially guaranteed. After driving in 11 runs and stealing 6 bases. he was named "NL Player of the Week" for the week of April 28 – May 4.

After a knee injury to Andruw Jones, Kemp became the Dodgers' regular center fielder. He finished the season with a .297 average, 18 homers and 76 RBI. He was also second on the team in stolen bases with 35. In addition, he set a Dodgers record with 153 strikeouts in a season.

Kemp had his first career walk-off hit on June 16 against the Oakland A's. On September 24, he became the first player in Dodger history to hit at least .295, with 25 home runs, 100 RBIs, and 30 steals in one season. He finished the year with .297, 26 home runs, 101 RBI, and 34 steals (3rd in the NL). Read Less

On November 22, he came in second to Ryan Braun in the voting for the National League Most Valuable Player Award.

After the season, Kemp signed a franchise record 8-year, $160 million contract extension.

Kemp started the 2012 season off by winning the National League Player of the Week award for the opening weekend. He hit two home runs and drove in eight RBI during the opening series against the San Diego Padres. He was also the first Dodger to record three consecutive multi-hit games to start the season since Adrian Beltre did it in 2000. Read Less

On April 10, Kemp became the first LA Dodger to have an RBI in the first five games of the season since J. D. Drew in 2006 and, counting the end of the previous season, he had nine straight games with an RBI, tying Roy Campanella (1955) and Augie Galan (1944) for the Dodgers franchise record. Kemp also won the Player of the Week award for the second week of the season, which, combined with winning the award in the last week of 2011, makes him the only player to ever win three consecutive awards. He is also only the second player to win the award twice to begin the season, the other being Tony Armas in 1981. Kemp hit 12-22 with 4 HR and a 1.182 slugging percentage, leading the club to its best 10-game start since 1981. Kemp hit his 10th home run of the season on April 25, tying Gary Sheffield's club record for homers in April set in 2000. He broke Sheffield's record with a walk-off homer against the Washington Nationals on April 28. Kemp was also named National League player of the month for April. Kemp was placed on the disabled list on May 14 because of a hamstring injury, ending his streak of 399 consecutive games played, which was the longest in the majors at the time. After his DL stint, he promptly re-injured his hamstring two days later while running the bases and returned to the DL. Read Less