To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what order the other pitchers in the National League are listed – no one is going to take this award from Clayton Kershaw.
Seemingly deciding that he’s never going to walk more than a batter a week, Kershaw has now issued just five walks through his first eleven starts. Hitters should probably just stop swinging altogether, as he’s struck out 105 batters on the year. That’s a 21-to-1 ratio for those keeping score at home, easily the best ratio of all-time (the single season record was actually set just two years ago by Phil Hughes at 11.6-to-1).
His 4.1 WAR not only puts him on pace for the greatest pitching season of all-time (currently Pedro Martinez‘ 11.6 in 1999), but ranks him ahead of the entire rotations of all but ten other teams. It doesn’t only put him at the top of the pitching ranks either; he leads all of baseball in WAR, giving him the inside track at the NL MVP vote as well.
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At this point, when opposing managers see Kershaw penciled onto the lineup card, they might as well just invite some local kids to play that night. It’s not like they’d do any worse, and heck – they might even have more fun doing it.