Ok, that title is a bit misleading. Clayton Kershaw isn’t good at baseball … he is great at baseball. In fact, he will absolutely positively be a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years after he decides to hang up his spikes. But despite his perceived declining numbers, Dodger fans are hoping and praying that he will not do so anytime soon … at least not before his current 3-year / $93 million contract extension (which he signed on November 18, 2018 that also included a $23 million signing bonus) expires following the 2021 season.

But why would – or should – the Dodgers (and their fans) be so amped-up over a starting pitcher who turned 31 years old on March 19 and whose best days (and once 97-mph fastball) are clearly behind him, you ask? The answer to this is simple. Because Clayton Kershaw is great at baseball.

Allow me to elaborate.

In his last 14 starts dating back to August 19 of last season, the Dodgers have won all 14 of them. In those 14 consecutive Dodgers wins, the Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in University Park, TX struck out 83 opposing batters while walking only 17 for an incredible strikeout-to-walk (SO/W) ratio of 4.88. And of the 365 batters he faced in those 14 wins, he allowed a grand total of (ironically) 14 home runs. That figures out to be one home run for every 26.7 batters faced.

No, Clayton Kershaw isn’t good at baseball, he is great at baseball – and will, in all likelihood, retire with the same team that drafted him in 2006. And when he does, number 22 will join numbers 1, 2, 4, 19, 20, 24, 32, 39, 42, and 53 as 11th Dodgers uniform number to be retired.

Play Ball!

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