By Jon Weisman
Did you know? Last week, Clayton Kershaw faced 28 batters and was not charged with a hit or a walk. He was credited with what was called a “no-hitter.”
By virtue of this noteworthy accomplishment, Kershaw has been named the National League Player of the Week. It’s a nice little honor for the up-and-coming 26-year-old … although research finds that he has previously won this award in 2013, 2012 and 2011. Along with, let’s see, a couple of Cy Young awards.
And that’s not all. Despite not making an appearance between his March 22 and May 6 starts, and then getting clobbered by Arizona on May 17, Kershaw is back to climbing up the statistical charts. At 64 1/3 innings so far this year, Kershaw does need some additional catch-up work to qualify for the league leaders in rate stats. But for NL pitchers with at least 60 innings in 2014, here’s where Kershaw stands:
- K/9: 12.03, first
- BB/9: 1.12, first
- K/BB: 10.75, first
- FIP: 1.59, first
- xFIP: 1.53, first
- GB%: 60.0, second
- WHIP: 0.92, third
- WAR: 2.5, fourth
- Opponents’ batting average: .211, fifth
- ERA: 2.52, eighth
- HR/9: 0.56, 10th
- Strikeouts: 86, 13th
- Innings: 64 1/3, 39th
He missed over a month, he doesn’t qualify yet for the ERA competition, and yet he’s fourth in the league in WAR, a cumulative stat. That’s our Kershaw.
Comments are closed.