Matt Kemp passes Mike Piazza on LA Dodger home run leaderboard

Matt Kemp hit a huge home run on Sunday to help the Dodgers beat the Giants and inch them closer to a 2014 NL Pennant. Not as important but still significant it was the 177th home run of Matt Kemp’s Dodger career, tying him with Dodger legend Mike Piazza for fifth place on the all time LA Dodger home run leaderboard.

In his first at bat last night, Matt Kemp powered his 178th home run,  and now stands alone in fourth place on the all time LA Dodger home leaderboard. Matt has a long way to go to catch Steve Garvey at 211, but at least you can see a path for Matt to accomplish this. When Matt signed his long-term contract it was assumed he would replace everyone on the Dodger offensive leaderboard, but two significant injuries later, no one knew if Matt Kemp could even stay healthy or productive enough to remain an everyday major league outfielder. The brooding player who had been replaced in CF, and was wondering why he was in LF, seems like a long way from the Matt Kemp showing up today.

Matt has been very consistent since moving to RF. It took a while for the long ball to come back for Matt but with twenty one home runs in 2014 it has arrived.

Player            HR From   To   Age   PA  OPS       Pos
Eric Karros      270 1991 2002 23-34 6624 .782     *3/HD
Ron Cey          228 1971 1982 23-34 6108 .804      *5/H
Steve Garvey     211 1969 1982 20-33 7027 .796 *35/H7649
Matt Kemp        178 2006 2014 21-29 4452 .843   *89/H7D
Mike Piazza      177 1992 1998 23-29 3017 .966    *2/HD3
Pedro Guerrero   171 1978 1988 22-32 4089 .893  59783/H4
Raul Mondesi     163 1993 1999 22-28 3765 .838    *98/7H
Shawn Green      162 2000 2004 27-31 3462 .876   *93/DH8
Willie Davis     154 1960 1973 20-33 8035 .725     *8/H9

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/16/2014.

In a ideal world we will be talking about Matt passing Steve Garvey at this time next year, but in a more realistic world it will probably be some time in 2016.