As a San Francisco Giants fan this is difficult to say, but here it goes: Clayton Kershaw is the best left-hander I’ve ever seen. He is hands down the best pitcher in baseball right now. Dominant, lights-out, incredible are some of the superlatives frequently associated with the southpaw, and rightfully so. His season has been so good, he will undoubtedly win the Cy-Young and maybe even a Most Valuable Player award.
Despite missing several starts at the start of the season, he is set to log plenty of innings. His strikeout numbers are through the roof, he is third in the National League with 209, even with missing several starts, as aforementioned. He leads the league in wins — as pointless as wins are, it’s always nice to be the league leader. And for the metric lovers, he is pretty much the best in every one.
According to ESPN, Kershaw boasts a WAR of 7.4, which is stupidly good. It shouldn’t be possible for a pitcher with only 160 innings under his belt to have a WAR of over seven. His 7.4 not only ranks first among all pitchers, it is easily first among any player. His WAR further reinforces his case for winning both the Cy-Young and MVP.
Surprise, surprise: His ERA of 1.70 leads all of baseball. His FIP of 1.89 leads all of baseball. His xFIP of 2.06 leads all of baseball. His ERA- of 48 and FIP- of 52 are both utterly incredible, oh, and they lead all of baseball, of course. To put that into perspective, an ERA- of 48 is kind of the same as a wRC+ of 152, which is pretty good. In fact, it’s MVP territory.
So — just how has the leftie been able to put up these video game-esque statistics? In terms of batted ball, his line drive percentage is well down, and his ground ball percentage up, which always helps. Batters are swinging at more pitches outside the zone, and at more pitches period. Batters are making less contact on pitches both inside and outside the zone.
But the most important feature of his game are the pitches, obviously. One noticeable trend is the fact he is throwing his fastball a little less, and thus throwing his breaking pitches a little more – mainly the slider, and he should be throwing his slider more, too. His weighted fastball value this season is 18.0, whereas his weighted slider value is 20.5. Hence, his slider is better. Obviously.
Just why has his slider been so successful? Well, Kershaw is at his best when throwing down and away to left handers, and down and in to right handers, which is exactly what a slider is designed to do. In the bottom right of the strike zone – down and away to left handers and down and in to right handers – opponents have a 0.26 ISO. Batters simply don’t hit his slider.
Kershaw has pin-point control. He has the stuff to strike out even the best hitters in the game. He elevates his game in high leverage situations – epitomized by his 4.47 WPA. All in all, Clayton has everything. He has been utterly astounding. I’m not the biggest fan of pitchers winning an MVP, but there are exceptions to every rule. Kershaw is the exception to this rule. Clayton Kershaw should be the 2014 Cy-Young and MVP winner.