Stay Healthy, Please: The Clayton Kershaw Thread

I knew I was teeing one up there...Had no idea the percentage was that high, though. Era would explain some of that, yeah; I also wonder if that includes runs scored for the entire game, i.e. any runs scored after the pitcher leaves. So a guy could leave with a 2-1 lead in the seventh, his team scores four runs in the eighth/ninth, and it ends up looking like he won a blowout.

Since his terrible start against the Cubs:

36 IP, 22 H, 51 K, 6 BB, 2 ER.

pretty sure that includes 4 shutouts in his last 5 outings (incl one stretch of 3 in a row!) i think maybe you mean against the mets, clem, when he gave up 3 or 4 homers june 19

June 19 against the Mets, you're right--the Cubs go back to May 28. He had three good starts between the two.

Clayton Kershaw disappeared into the trainers' room after the top half of the second inning, and now Ross Stripling is warming up. Looks like he will take it from here. No word yet on what might be ailing Kershaw, who has been pitching at his best.

dammit. missed the beginning of the game, just tuned in to see him leave the field and there's been no conjecture what's wrong except he was holding his hip as he walked off after the top of the 2nd

Who's the idiot who titled this thread?

@BNightengale
Clayton Kershaw will go on DL, #Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. with no timetable on return; tests scheduled Monday on his back.

fuck

Best player, best pitcher, and #1 future-superstar all in the same season--and you can throw in Beltre, chasing two major milestones.

:(

Sinking feeling he's going to take the Koufax parallels too far.

btw Koufax started 314 games (+ 70some relief outings early on), threw 2324 innings

Kershaw: 284 starts, 1901 innings

koufax also started when injuries were still treated with leeches and miracle elixirs

yep, that's why cross-era comparisons are foggy

out for 4-6 weeks apparently.

guess Scherzer will grab Cy #3 barring a total collapse and an incredible Kershaw komeback

such a bummer

(xpost) It's in my own best interest for Scherzer to win (a HOF bet I posted about elsewhere), but I can still easily see Kershaw winning. Scherzer's last start was poor; if he has a couple of more mediocre starts while Kershaw's out, and Kershaw comes back with a strong September, it'd be close, I think. Kershaw's numbers are frozen at a pretty impressive place for the next four weeks.

Bill James's leaderboard is tightening (in the original article he designated 600 as "a historic level").

Kershaw - 610.1
Scherzer - 609.3
Sale - 596.7
Kluber - 585.1

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/245168842/dodgers-clayton-kershaws-back-injury-better/

Can't see that there's any incentive to re-activate him too soon with their lead.

Went to the game last night. So damn much fun thx in part to G'ints' bullpen

clayton kershaw is expected to make his triple-a debut saturday in oklahoma city

What was the true nature of Kershaw's crap start?

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20669761/clayton-kershaw-thin-line-one-bad-start-catastrophe

Altherred history

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/9/18/16331508/dodgers-clayton-kershaw-first-grand-slam-phillies-aaron-altherr

the streak lives

Kershaw's career ERA after each season of his career:
4.26
3.36
3.17
2.88
2.79
2.60
2.48
2.43
2.37
2.36https://t.co/UUjKUuvBAH

— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) October 1, 2017

Hannah Hochevar
Fun to watch the Kershaw arm angle last night. Seemed like he dropped down a few times again. Announcers were saying that some of his problems this year are due to hitters being more geared for low balls in general. Agree?

Jeff Sullivan
He's worked lower than he usually does this season. Not that his season was in any way bad. And I don't have a good explanation for the postseason dingers, aside from, welp
The drop-down slot continues to intrigue me, because it's interesting while also not being so helpful. Kershaw hasn't pitched all that well from the second arm slot, but he's still doing it in the playoffs, suggesting that he thinks it's worth the trick
Did it four times last night. Two strikes, all fastballs, all elevated

Dallas Cankle:
If Clayton Kershaw opts-out next year what’s the highest Farhan Friedman goes before saying uncle?

Paul Swydan:
I think that’ll actually be a really interesting discussion. They don’t seem like the kind of front office who will be swayed by sentiment, and if Kershaw has back problems for a third consecutive season in 2018, I could see the Dodgers not making much of an effort to keep him at all.

what's up

https://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/pitcher-spotlight-the-crack-in-clayton-kershaws-armor/

just came to post that story. something I've been noticing and dreading for a year or so now

Welp:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23664559/los-angeles-dodgers-ace-clayton-kershaw-mri-back-tightens-1st-game-back

All 20 of Clayton Kershaw's four-seam fastballs were 90.0 mph or slower in his outing Thursday night, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Last year, not a single one of his 1,142 four-seam fastballs was 90.0 mph or slower.

yikes

His back was giving him problems though. He probably returned too soon.

Seems like he is back for at least a month on the DL.

What a bummer.

Won his 150th this afternoon.

Hard to know where he's at right now. He hasn't been as dominant this year, but he has been surprisingly consistent. His WHIP and K/BB ratios are back where they were four or five years ago, before he started posting off-the-chart numbers; his ERA and ERA+ match his career line. In 18 starts, he's given four runs once, three runs twice, no runs twice, and all the rest were one or two runs--as I say, consistent. His average Game Score is 60; in his MVP year, it was 70. If he gets healthy and settles in where he is right now, that'd be fine; no longer the best pitcher in baseball, but consistently one of the five or six best. "If he gets healthy," though, contains a lot--he's had three abbreviated seasons in a row.

adjusting

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/clayton-kershaws-disappearing-fastball/

kershaw trivia: the only time his mouth is not hanging wide open is when he's delivering a pitch

off that point a bit, Morbs, it is interesting to see the top SPs in MLB this year and how the vast majority of them don't just have more strikeouts than innings pitched, but substantially more to what must be a historic degree. and Kershaw of all people is one of the comparative few from that group whose Ks are less than 9 per 9 IP.

He's been on the DL twice this year. Can't remember the last time he had a healthy season tbqh... 2015? or '13?

...posted in "Stay Healthy, Please: The Clayton Kershaw Thread" lol

I must bear the responsibility for putting the curse on him.

Kristen:
Kershaw has been trending downwards the past few seasons in terms of FIP, FB velocity, SwStr%, Hard Hit%, etc. Add his contract demands and is it possible his market won’t be huge after all?

Jay Jaffe:
His market may not even be bigger than the team that still has exclusive rights to negotiate with him. But the extended negotiating period signals that he’d prefer to stay, and I think it’s just a matter of finding the right number. The Dodgers are clearly comfortable paying a premium to keep him.

his hardest fastball in game five was 91 mph : /

Peak Kershaw clearly history, but can he still be a co-ace?

he's still pretty good, just not $35m good. especially if he's going to miss 6-10 starts each year. ehh, the dodgers can afford it

i think buehler's the ace now, tho

best decision from kershaw's perspective would seem to be extending his deal with dodgers, for sure. i'll be kind of shocked if he signs with any other team

i'm not writing Kershaw off quite yet, he's young and a guy like Verlander had his Cy Young peak, went through worse, and bounced back to peak form.

he's obviously no kershaw, but i'm interested to see what happens with bumgarner too. year and a half younger, but his peripherals have declined even more. the giants have a $12m team option for 2019 at the end of an *extremely* team-friendly contract and i don't think he'll get the contract, at age 30, that he was expecting three years ago

the giants should obviously trade him but they'll probably sign sabathia, bring back marco scutaro and give the boys one more shot

i think sabathia stays w nyy on some kind of mutual wakefield-type deal

I'd say Kershaw's back is probably more a drag on his effectiveness than losing some speed on his fastball. He still has top level control and movement.

I kinda think CC pitches, it will be for the Yanks or I could see Cleveland maybe reaching out to maybe finish career where it started.

@Ken_Rosenthal
Kershaw: “I am throwing slower. I know that. And I don’t know if that’s going to be for the rest of my career, either. I firmly believe that I can get that back and I’m going to spend a lot of time this off-season working on that.”