This past Wednesday our non-ace as some pundits still like to say that the Dodgers do not have threw yet another brilliant game even though it was only 5+ innings for him. He was thrown out of the game for hitting Parra who he had a shouting match the previous night with as Parra was upstaging the Dodgers after a home run. My belief is with the control Kershaw had that night he hit Parra on purpose but he hit him on the elbow instead of the traditional behind the back or over the head pitches. He made it look like just an inside pitch but the intent was to hit him which he did. I suspect if Kershaw stayed in the game til the end he would have really let one go at Parra if the game was in hand but the time was not just right yet. The umpire, with no previous warning and that is key, decided upon himself that there would be none of that. Bad call by the ump but thankfully Kershaw got the win anyways.
As of today Kershaw leads in all Triple Crown categories ( Wins, E.R.A. and Strikeouts ) and we can go as far as making it a Quad Crown and include W.H.I.P. which he also leads. Not as bad as when Steve Carlton won 27 games on route to a CY Young win back in day with Phillies who only won 50+ games that year but what Kershaw is doing is unbelievable. Yes, Halladay and Lee are great, not taking that away from them but with the team they have behind them they should pull down those numbers. Yes, they play in a hitter's park but we play regular in COL and AZ which are considered hitter's park. His BAA against is a minuscule .207 which is crazy good. Also, flight travel takes its too on players and the Phillie pitchers have a lot less over the course of the year and Kershaw is just getting better and better as the year goes on. Since April the only NL team to tag him with a loss are the Diamondbacks. With Felix Hernandez winning the CY Young last year with only a 13-12 record and a great E.R.A. there is a precedent that a pitcher can win without the run support. With Kershaw's 19-5 and possibly 21-5 record including all the other league leading stats in the end there should be no question on who should win the CY Young.
I was not fortunate enough to watch Sandy Koufax pitch but from all the stories I have read Kershaw is in the same mold and if that is anyway true we need to lock him up contract-wise now. He is 23 only and posts a 45-28 record. If in the next 7 years he averages just 15 wins a year he would have 150 at the young age of 30. I think he can do better than that. With Jered Weaver signing a discount contract with the Angels and with Scott Boras as the agent we should be able to get this done. 6-7 year deal with an average of 14-17 should do it and then when he is at age 30 he can line up another big payday contract. The Dodgers need to keep Kershaw and Kemp and need to make it happen now. Even with the McCourt fiasco going on now any new owner needs players to get people to the ballpark and these two are the ones to do. I know Kemp loves Los Angeles and the fans, I have not heard either way for Kershaw but I think he is comfortable here and we need to make him financially comfortable now not later.
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