February 13th, 2013 at 6:01 am 
by Ron Cervenka I guess it might have been different if it had been Buster Posey or Pablo Sandoval who had taken a verbal shot at the Dodgers for their big off-season spending spree. After all, Posey is the 2012 National League MVP and did have a league-leading .336 batting average and an exceptional .408 OBP and .549 SLG; and Sandoval did hit three home runs in game-1 of the 2012 World Series to run away with the World Series MVP title. But when a weak-hitting loud-mouthed second year MLB player comes out and says something stupid like “All I can say is, you can’t buy chemistry,” about the Dodgers, you have to seriously question Brandon Belt’s intelligence.
Riding on the coattails of his teammates, the Triple-A caliber Giants first baseman made his flippant remark during the team’s recent Fan Fest, where he was certainly preaching to the choir of frenzied (and probably stoned) Giants fans.
This is the same Brandon Belt who went 1 for 13 (.077) with 7 strikeouts in the aforementioned World Series and hit a whopping (get this) .146 against the Dodgers during the 2012 season. Talk about missing a perfect opportunity to keep your mouth shut. If you’re going to talk smack, at least have the wherewithal to back it up.
Perhaps Brandon Belt should worry more about his excessive strikeouts than the chemistry of the Dodgers.
(Photo credit – Paul Chinn).
And here’s a clue Brandon, you actually can buy chemistry – just ask Melky Cabrera, Guillermo Mota and, of course, the biggest chemist of them all, Barry Bonds. If anybody knows anything about buying chemistry, it’s the San Francisco Giants.
Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp summed it up best when told of Belt’s comment during an interview on Tuesday morning at Camelback Ranch.
“Who said that?”
Exactly.
“Who said that?”
(Video capture courtesy of espn.com)
The next time Brandon Belt feels compelled to “Let (his) alligator mouth overrule (his) hummingbird ass,” perhaps he should strike out less and hit better than .146 against the team he criticizes.
Not only is .146 hitting below the Mendoza Line, it’s hitting below the Belt.
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This just makes me smile, Ron! Great job whipping this kid with his own Belt! I’ve not laughed so hard to start my day in a long time. You should send a tweet of this paragraph:
“The next time Brandon Belt feels compelled to “Let (his) alligator mouth overrule (his) hummingbird ass,” perhaps he should strike out less and hit better than .146 against the team he criticizes.”
THAT was epic!! Not sure if it’s 170 characters… do it!! 🙂
Nice! Definately the new new whipping boy of the Giants!
Would love to be a “spot on the wall” when the Giants management has a few words for him – and I bet they will. Humorous blog, Ron. Nice way to start my day.
Brandon Belt is a potty mouth and should not have said what he said. It was not wise from a Dodger-Giant point of view and he will be roasted when he plays in LA. The Dodgers really don’t need any more motivation vs the Giants. Plus, you make a great point, he hasn’t earned the right with his play to be on the front lines of trash talk. Somehow the chemistry didn’t take on him. Matt’s answer is classic.
Uh Oh!!
I recall the debate about “chemistry” after the trading deadline last season when the acquisitions simply didn’t hit well, at least in RISP situations.
I don’t think chemistry can be bought as a commodity prepackaged ready for consumption. I think it has to be manufactured, grow. Chemistry is based on catalysts causing things to happen. The new guys last season were supposed to be those catalysts, creating victories. That was the reason (lack of chemistry) given by many in 2012 after the trade deadline to explain the lack of production by the hired guns. To me it was simply lack of production period. Two months was long enough to unite in a common goal. Chemistry or no chemistry you still gotta hit the ball. In hockey, basketball, football, it is pretty much impossible to be a one man show. In baseball a player can carry a team with a hot bat. The guys the Dodgers acquired were stone cold (RISP) after they arrived. To me that wasn’t because they were playing as a group of strangers, but because they simply didn’t hit the ball in clutch situations. You can do that on your own. If they had done that, we would be talking about the great chemistry with the team in the post season.
I agree with Ozzie Smith. I think it was Ozzie that said winning builds chemistry. If the Dodgers get off to a good start, chemistry will develop. If they struggle and the big guns don’t produce, then chemistry will be among the missing. Once a team (with good players) starts to win, confidence grows, players believe they can win it all, the game is fun, they believe in themselves and in each other. Losing teams don’t have a good team chemistry or at least we don’t hear about it.
When speaking of team chemistry it is always seen as a good thing. However, it is a two way street. If bringing in players can build chemistry, it can also destroy it. The goal then is to be sure you bring in the right players. Buying is no guarantee to good team chemistry. Winning is and the other way, IMO, is to have a very productive farm system with players who have grown into big league players together.
Uh Oh!!
Maybe this is just what the Dodgers need to really motivate them. He’s right but as you say, Ron, he’s not the right guy to be pointing it out.
This most likely will get the Dodgers in an aggressive mode, knowing their biggest rivals are putting them down.
This is a good way to get the enemy hatred up and I know he knows that the Dodgers are their enemies.
I’m surprised that Belt’s comments garnered so much publicity because Giants announcers are constantly making similar comments about the Dodgers failures to win because of poor “chemistry.” It’s unfair and when you consider that 1/3 of the Dodger lineup changed as late as August 25th, there really wasn’t much time to turn things around last year.
If I was to keep tabs of similar comments made by other players (i.e. Zito and Vogelsong come to mind), the “chemistry” comment made by Belt is nothing new.
Belt is actually a better player than portrayed in Ron’s piece here though. He’s one of the few Gnats who actually takes walks and works counts. Though his success against the Dodgers hasn’t been very impressive, his lifetime OBP is a full 80 points higher than his BA, which leads me to believe that he may turn out to be a quite valuable player in the years to come.
Melky Cabrera
Right. On. The. Nose. Glad someone said it.
Sounds to me like a stupid kid with diarrhea of the mouth !! Can’t wait to see the next Dodger Giant game !!
Oh yeah! I hope Belt knows The Baseball Codes.
Unfortunately Mr. belt has just added fuel to the Dodgers fire to get back at the girls by the bay. Sounds to me like a repeat of way back when, when the Giants coach asked if the Dodgers still played and we responded with a big “oh yeah pal, we are still here”. I just Hope we give them what they deserve and earned, a well overdue but kicking
Guess Belt was right…..Go Giants!!!!!
Guess we’ll see. Go Cards!
Dodgers already home for the holidays… enjoy that golf Kershaw!