By consensus, the organizations with the biggest and best young athletes are the Dodgers, Angels and Devil Rays. The Dodgers' Matt Kemp may be the best of their young players, with an interesting background. He was an outstanding basketball player in Oklahoma, a two guard whose teammate and close friend in AAU ball was Duke's Shelden Williams. "I really believed my best chance to make it to the major leagues was in baseball, not basketball," said Kemp. "Shelden and I have remained close. We probably talk two or three times a week."
"What we were able to do with a lot of the moves we made this winter was buy time," said general manager Ned Coletti. "We don't want to get into a situation where we rush these kids. Now they have time."