Tony Kemp, one of Vanderbilt's greatest baseball players ever, checks in at No. 12 on our countdown of 100-greatest Commodores we've covered. Follow along here in our countdown to No. 1.
Honors and awards: 2011 first-team Freshman All-American (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, Perfect Game)
2011 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year
2011 first-team All-SEC
2011 All-College World Series team
2011 SEC Freshman of the Week (Week 7)
2013 first-team All-American (ACBA, BA, CB, NCBWA, Perfect Game)
2013 SEC Player of the Year
2013 first-team All-SEC
2013 SEC All-Defensive Team
2013 All-SEC Tournament
2013 All-Nashville Regional team
2013 SEC Hitter of the Week (Weeks 11 and 13)
In the VU record book: Single-season hits: fourth (104 in 2013)
Single-season triples: tied-first, third, tied-fourth (eight in 2012, seven in 2011, six in 2013)
Career runs scored: sixth (177)
Career triples: first (21)
Career stolen bases: sixth (72)
Before VU: Starred at Centennial High (Franklin, Tenn.), lettering four years in football and baseball. Made first-team all-mid-state as a junior and senior and was second-team all-state as a junior. Also made all-district his last three seasons. Hit .470 as a junior and .570 as a senior. Played summer ball with the Nashville Yankees.
Freshman (2011): Was the regular left fielder, starting 64 games and playing in 65, for a 54-12 (22-8 SEC) team that shared the conference regular-season title and finished tied for third at the College World Series. Started all 30 SEC games, hitting .402/.469/.504 in them, with no homers, 15 RBIs and 33 runs. In all games, fielded 1.000 in 96 chances, with three assists and one double play. Stole 17 bases in 22 tries. Made the All-CWS team, highlighted by his reaching base four times with three hits in VU's win over North Carolina in the program's first-ever CWS game. Had three hits in the two super regional wins over Oregon State, adding a run and an RBI. Knocked in two runs with an infield single in an NCAA Tournament win over Troy. Scored three runs, drove in a season-high three runs and went 3-for-5 in win over Georgia in SEC Tournament opener. Had his fifth-straight multi-hit game with two hits at Kentucky on May 8. Scored four runs in a win over Tennessee on May 1. Knocked in two with two hits the day before. Had five hits at South Carolina on April 16. Was 1-for-4 with a diving, game-saving catch in a win over Alabama on April 10. Was SEC co-Freshman of the Week after going 9-for-18 with seven runs between a game with UT-Martin and the Auburn series. Had three hits with his fourth multi-hit game in his last six in win at Arkansas on March 26. Had 10 hits in a five-game span that included the Mississippi St. series. Drove in the tying run with safety squeeze vs. UIC on March 12. Had his third-straight two-hit game on Feb. 20 in a win at San Diego and added two steals in that contest.
Sophomore (2012): Started all 63 games for a 35-28 (16-14) team that finished second at the Raleigh Regional. Began the season as VU's regular left fielder, but shifted to second base and became the team's regular there in late April. Started all 30 SEC regular-season games, hitting .267/.388/.379, with 11 RBIs and 25 runs. Fielded .983 with three errors, 51 assists and 11 double plays. Stole 21 of 25 bases in all games. Hit .375/.500/.438 in the Raleigh Regional. Scored twice and reached base four times in an SEC Tournament loss to Florida. Was 2-for-5 with a walk and two RBIs in a win over Rhode Island on March 4. Was 4-for-5 with a double, a triple, three runs and four RBIs in a win over Siena on March 13. Was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two runs in a loss to Evansville. Doubled twice, walked and drove in two in an April 1 loss to South Carolina. Was 3-for-5 with a double and three runs scored in an April 8 loss to Mississippi St. Was 3-for-5 with a triple, three runs scored and an RBI in an April 15 win over Auburn. Tripled, walked and scored three in an April 21 loss at Alabama. Tripled twice, walked twice, scored two and drove in three in a May 6 win at Tennessee. Was 4-for-5 with three runs scored in the season's last regular-season game vs. Ole Miss.
Junior (2013): Started all 66 games for a 54-12 (26-3) team that won the SEC and lost to Louisville in the Nashville Super Regional. Fielded .971, with 10 errors in 346 chances along with 38 double plays. Started all 29 SEC regular-season games, hitting .392/.443/.480. Hit .353/.450/.353 in the Nashville Regional. Hit .333/.417/.333 in the SEC Tournament. Reached base three times, with two runs scored and two RBIs, in the season-opening win vs. Long Beach St. Was 5-for-5 with two doubles, a run scored and an RBI in a win over Belmont. Scored four times in a Feb. 21 win over Monmouth. Reached base four times, drove in three and scored three in a victory over Evansville. Reached base three times and scored three times in a series-opening win over UIC. Was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored in a Mar. 9 victory at Oregon. Reached base eight times in 15 tries in a three-game series sweep of Auburn. Had three hits and scored a run in a 2-1 win over Ole Miss. Reached base five times, scoring three times and driving in two, in a victory over UT-Martin. Was 7-for-15 with five runs scored and three RBIs in a three-game sweep of Missouri. Reached base four times and scored three runs in a mid-week win over Louisville. Was 6-for-10 with two walks, four runs and two RBIs in a sweep of Mississippi St. Went 8-for-14 with two RBIs and four runs scored in a sweep of Kentucky. Had two hits in each of the final three regular-series games vs. Alabama, with an RBI and three runs scored.
Post-VU: The Astros took Kemp in Round 5 (137th overall) in the 2013 MLB Draft. Kemp has played part of every season in the Majors since 2016, and signed with Oakland this offseason.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: The only thing anyone could hold against Kemp at VU was a lack of home-run power--Kemp had just one in his career--but he off-set a lot of that with a school-record 21 triples and 30 doubles.
On the other hand, Kemp did two things spectacularly well: contribute consistently (he played in all but one game in his VU career, and started all but two) and reach base an a staggering clip (388 career times on base and a .437 on-base percentage).
Kemp was also versatile, which played a big part in a 2012 season during which VU started 1-7 and was 17-22 overall entering the third game of the Alabama series on April 22. The Commodores had lost the first two contests to the Crimson Tide (which went 21-34 that season) and had five SEC series ahead, four against teams that would make the NCAA Tournament. Against that backdrop, the Commodores moved Kemp to second to replace Riley Reynolds (who hit .238/283/.262 in regular-season SEC play) for Game 3 of that series.
While what happened next wasn't solely due to that decision, VU got scorching-hot the rest of the way, winning 16 of its next 20 to close the regular season and cruise into the NCAA Tournament as a 2-seed--the last thing anyone expected to happen at that time. Kemp wound up as a terrific defensive second baseman and made the conference's all-defensive squad the next season.
Kemp is also one of just three players in SEC history (Auburn's Hunter Morris and Ole Miss's Stephen Head are the others) to win both SEC Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year during their careers.
Adjusted for run-scoring context, Kemp's 9.05 "runs created" per 27 outs rank eighth among all hitters in the Tim Corbin era. Throw in the defense, the versatility and his huge role on two 54-12 teams that won SEC titles (one of which went to the school's first CWS) and it's hard to justify leaving Kemp outside the top 15.
