This is an update from an earlier post of how awesome Clayton Kershaw is. There have been many, I know, but right now I'm talking about the one I wrote in July. I won't go into as much detail here since I have some really simple numbers that show how awesome Kershaw is.
First of all, I thought when Kershaw got hurt early in the season that this wasn't going to be a year when he won the Cy Young. The lesson, as always, I'm an idiot. Despite missing over a month, he's going to win the Cy Young easily. It should be his fourth in a row, but three in four years isn't bad.
Why should he be MVP? Because he's meant more to his team than any other player in the National League. In the post I linked, I went through how Clayton Kershaw's WAR was too low back in July. Right now, ESPN and Baseball Reference have his WAR at 7.7. Fangraphs has him at 7.2. Still way too low.
Rather than talking about theoretical wins above theoretical replacement players, let's talk about actual wins and actual players. The Dodgers went 23-4 in Kershaw's 27 starts (20-1 in his last 21 starts). When Kershaw didn't pitch, the Dodgers went 68-64. The Dodgers still have three more games, but they mean absolutely nothing, so I think it's appropriate to go through this exercise now. Another way to think about that is that they went 14-13 in every 27 games Kershaw didn't start. So Kershaw was worth nine wins over the rest of the Dodgers starters. Zack Greinke is way above the theoretical replacement level. Hyun-Jin Ryu is also well above replacement level. Josh Beckett pitched above replacement level until he got hurt. Dan Haren has been up and down. Sometimes he was at or below replacement level, but he's had several starts that were well above replacement level (especially the last two months). The other guys that started for the Dodgers, sure, they were replacement level, but most of their starts not made by Kershaw were made by somebody above replacement level. And Kershaw was nine wins better than those guys. But his WAR is 7.7 or 7.2? Ridiculous.
He's the first pitcher ever to lead the Majors in ERA four years in a row (Koufax led the NL five years in a row, but only led the Majors three of those years). There are all sorts of numbers that show how amazing Kershaw was this year so I won't get into them all. This year wasn't as impressive as Pedro Martinez's best year, but it was still amazing and this is a better four-year run than any pitcher in a long time.
Kershaw's regular seasons are officially Koufaxian. I know Koufax pitched a lot more innings, but the game has changed. Kershaw pitches more than any other starter (he averaged 7.8 innings per start against teams with winning records). He is dominating the game the way Koufax did. What Koufax dominated in a way that nobody else has is the postseason (Rivera did too, but he wasn't a starter). I hope Kershaw can come close to Koufax's dominance in the postseason this year. He should be the regular season MVP. I hope he gets the World Series MVP also.
Let's finish up with my Favorite Dodgers Power Rankings (current players only):
1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Matt Kemp
3. Andre Ethier
4. Juan Uribe
5. A.J. Ellis
6. Adrian Gonzalez
7. Justin Turner (he's the man, the only thing that's keeping him from being higher on the list is the fact that it's his first year with the team)
8. Yasiel Puig
9. Zack Greinke
10. Scott Van Slyke
11. Dee Gordon
12. Carl Crawford
13. Hyun-Jin Ryu
14. J.P. Howell
15. Kenley Jansen
16. Miguel Rojas (for saving Kershaw's no-hitter)
17. Hanley Ramirez- Last year was great. This year, not so much. The Dodgers should probably let him leave as a free agent. But help them win the World Series this year, and I will love him forever.
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