The Dominance of Clayton Kershaw

by
July 29, 2014

Yesterday, I saw a nifty little tidbit in my Twitter timeline. It basically sums up the dominance of Clayton Kershaw about as well as any statistic I can think of.

It’s true. Opponents are hitting .189/.220/.288 against Kershaw this year. Kershaw is hitting .194/.237/.194 when he steps up to the plate to do the thing he’s not paid to do. Yes, he gives up a few more extra base hits than he hits himself, but just in terms of getting hits or out avoidance, opposing hitters against Kershaw have been worse than Kershaw against opposing pitchers.

And this is actually a bad year for Kershaw at the plate. Over the last four years, spanning 295 plate appearances, he has hit .202/.245/.231. Over those same four years, opponents have hit .202/.252/.298 against Kershaw.

For four years, Kershaw has posted the same batting average and on base percentage as he’s allowed actual professional hitters to put up against him. Yeah. This guy is ridiculous.





 

Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.

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Lookin for a Junk Drawer
9 years ago

All of these articles have pretty much doomed Kershaw to injury and subsequent irrelevance.YOU BASTARDS DID THE SAME DAMN THING TO VOTTO!!!

8
Alec
9 years ago
Reply to  Lookin for a Junk Drawer

Dave and Jeff are both huge Mariner fans. Felix is alive, and arguably the most valuable pitcher in the game (when factoring in contract and durability, he is arguably just a bit more valuable than Kershaw – note that I say arguably, just a bit, and factoring in). Dave nicknamed him King when he was 19. I don’t think he’s the problem

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