Clayton Kershaw
 

I heard two interesting tidbits on TV today. On MLB Now, it was stated that Kershaw and Pettite have made the most starts on short rest since 1995 with six starts each. On Pardon the Interruption, Mike Wilbon said that pitchers on short rest are a combined 49-79 in the post season. I realize Kershaw has had his post season troubles, but do these two pieces of information provide a partial answer to this? Thoughts?

So much for that theory.

Where are the guys who have insisted in the past this was all just small sample size?

To me this is a huge, and almost inexplicable, black mark against an otherwise great pitcher.

At this point everyone knows what Kershaw is, except Dave Roberts apparently.

I am a life long Dodger fan and have been a defender of Kershaw through his playoff woes, but I must concede, he has experienced a significant decline in the last few years. While pitchers such as Scherzer and Verlander have flourished with age, Kershaw has not.

I can remember Verlander having some aging pains of his own In Detroit. Kershaw will figure it out. If Homer Bailey (Homer Bailey!) can figure out his problems and turn it around in Oakland, Kershaw can turn it around in LA. Or maybe it just takes a change of scenery.

Verlander had a physical problem he finally was able to fix with the help of an innovative physical therapist.

Tim- I've always hoped Kershaw would spend his whole career with the Dodgers. I hope he figures it out soon, although he still remains an excellent regular season pitcher. He's just not up to the amazing numbers he posted earlier in his career.

I'm no Dodger fan, and I've only rooted for Kershaw twice (or how many times he pitched against the Red Sox), but the manager needs to take some heat here too. He left a lot in the bullpen, even though guys were up and ready--probably the right guys too.

Had Eaton delivered against Kershaw in the prior inning we would have heard about that all off season too. As it is though, Kershaw looked great in that one AB to end the inning, and Roberts may have thought he caught lightning in a bottle and could roll the dice. Me, I would have used that as a confidence builder and moved on to start the 8th, although hindsight is always 20-20 as they say. Maybe Roberts remembered 2017, when Kershaw left with two on and a 3-run lead in the WS only to watch Maeda promptly give up a three-run shot to to tie what would be a pivotal loss in game 5. Still, Maeda had looked very relaxed and sharp this series, and looked like the obvious choice. FWIW, Kelly should not have been allowed to start or finish the 10th either--that too is on Roberts.

Back to Kershaw, though, I believe he can still be very effective going forward if he pitches more than throws. Pedro Martinez said something after the game about how Kershaw needs to give up being a power pitcher and use his experience to keep hitters off balance. I think he's right. Anybody these days can throw 96 plus and many have good secondary pitches as well. Still, there is plenty of room still for the proverbial "wily veteran" to prosper.

Anibal Sanchez! I didn't follow the Nationals this year, but I couldn't believe he was pitching in this series.

todd--i think you're a closet dodgers fan, that was a fairly informed dodgers post.

alot of kershaw's postseason history has been circumstantial, the bullpen surely hasn't helped his narrative any. i do blame the astros world series loss on him and kenley tho, i still haven't gotten over that. i didn't have high hope this year as their pitching aren't as strong. i do think roberts is more of a pom-pom waving rah rah kind of manager, i'm not impressed with his in-game decision at all.

oh well postseason is about pitching and imo wash had the best 2 pitchers in the series (buehler is a bulldog and he's gonna be top 5-7 SP soon) so it was a toss-up. not upset or down today, when you can start scherzer and strasburg 4/5 games that's a pretty good advantage over the other team.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SafeExempl...restricted.gif

I'll just leave this here. I loved seeing Brewers All Star starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff, a left handed batter, take Kershaw deep. :D

Wanted to bump this since the Astros news broke.

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Kershaw has a nice high leg kick before he delivers. However it seems he loses that leg kick momentum halfway through his delivery as his leg comes down and pauses before he makes movement toward the plate. Looks somewhat herky-jerky to me. I wonder if he were to continue his leg kick momentum further into driving toward the plate, smooth it out, maybe gain more power on delivery. Heck if I know technically, I am sure not a coach, but it would seem coaches would spot this and try to help him have a more smooth continual pitching motion.

This most continually dominant starting pitcher of his generation (up until the last few years) Have you ever considered that he's making an adjustment for ache and pain? Ankle, knee or hip? In 12 MLB seasons he's been a workhorse. Pitched a cargo ship of innings. I highly doubt knows nothing how to adjust his technique.

To answer your question, yes, I have considered that Kershaw has been making adjustments the last few years. I would be shocked if he hasn't. I know he has been working diligently on developing a change-up and I know he constantly makes adjustment to keep hitters off balance and focusing more on pitch placement rather than just sending fastballs straight down the plate. If you take a look at the site, "Let's Talk Pitching" (a forum with technical talk from actual pitchers/coaches) there are concerns with his herky-jerky pause before he comes to the plate. The posts inquire why the pause, claiming the pause does indeed take away from power to the plate. And pitchers say the pause is not the best of mechanics to promote to young pitchers as it can lead to a loss of power and too much stress on the arm and shoulder. On the other hand, some posts claim what Kershaw gains with the pause is the ability to keep hitters off balance. They also say that the other aspects of his pitching motion are infact very solid.

I've always thought pitchers with complicated wind-ups had a shorter shelf life in general. When there's that many moving parts, when something goes wrong or gets out of whack it's tough to pin down exactly what is wrong. This leads to constant tweaks that effect performance. Look at Tim Lincecum, Dontrelle Willis, etc. Crazy wind ups and when the bottom fell out, they were effectively done for. On the flip side, guys like Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux had simple mechanics, and they were able to pitch for a long time, remain largely injury-free and be consistently effective throughout their careers.

I totally agree...Alex Wood has had health problems too.

Disagree...we can all give names for our side...how was Juan Marichal..,,,didnt look up spelling

Satchel Paige played like 30 years and i believe he didnt have a conventional wind up, correct me if i am wrong .tons of guys with simple wind ups im sure got hurt a lot as well and/or ineffective

im sure there were good sidewinders and bad ones as well

Marichal and Paige are definitely good examples against my theory. They played before my time so I'm just going on a guess that maybe they didn't have the steep dropoff that Lincecum and Willis had? To be more clear, it's my belief that players with wind-ups like that are harder to correct once something goes wrong, not that they can't be effective throughout their entire career. I I have to think that when something was slightly out of whack for Ryan it was easier to correct than when something went out of whack with Willis. I'm sure there's exceptions to the rule though as you just mentioned two that clearly are.