His .331 OBP and his 81 strikeouts in 306 plate appearances wouldn’t seem to make him a very likely candidate, but here is Torre’s thinking: As important as it is for a leadoff man to reach base, it is equally important to the opposing pitcher to keep him OFF base. The last thing they want to do is walk the leadoff man. So Wandy Rodriguez figures to be throwing a lot of strikes, and that is when Kemp becomes dangerous. Most of his strikeouts seem to come on pitches out of the zone. And yes, Torre said he will make a point of pointing this out to Kemp before the game. Kemp said his only previous experience leading off came in the Arizona Fall League, where he played in 2005 and hit a walkoff homer to win the championship.

CF Kemp
LF Young
C Martin
2B Kent
1B Loney
3B LaRoche
RF Ethier
SS Maza
LH Kershaw