ESPN The Magazine: Molly Knight with a must-read profile on Matt Kemp.

Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello points out that the Dodgers bullpen is excelling … and on the cheap.

ESPN Boston: Theo Epstein provides a cautionary tale for the Dodgers.

“If I have a regret about the way we handled that offseason (after the 2009 season), it was that instead of being more patient and saying, ‘We’ll strike when the time is right,’ there was a lot of pressure in the environment at the time to do something,” Epstein said. “If I learned a lesson from the offseason, it’s never feel the need to do something. If you’re trying to avoid one move that you don’t think is going to work out, don’t then settle for a different move that maybe doesn’t check all the boxes. Be true to the philosophy and understand the bigger picture. There’s always another day to fight. You don’t have to get everything done in one offseason just because of what’s going on in the environment around you.”

Should be obvious to anybody with a brain that spending a $100 million budget wisely will make a far better team than a $200 million budget and randomly signing the biggest name on the market every now and then.

The Kansas City Star: Zack Greinke is weird … and awesome.