In 2020, 44% of Kershaw's fastballs are 92 mph or harder. This is the ninth installment on the topic I’m doing this year. As a result, Kershaw's HR/FB ratio has dropped to 15.4%, and with his xFIP at 2.89, Kershaw's FIP of 2.95 now indicates that his performance this season to boot is more or less who he is, and not affected by bad luck or quirky outliers.

Dodgers: What that Added Velocity Means for Clayton Kershaw and His Future The ace is trending back upwards and having fun at the age of 32. by Clint Pasillas 08/21/2020, 5:00 PM Check out this graph of Clayton Kershaw fastball velocity since 2015. Thanks to the higher altitude, Coors Field is infamous for making breaking balls break less, and so knowing he'd have one arm behind his back, Kershaw had to adjust. But that brings us to 2020, and Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. So with one more start to go before the playoffs get underway, I'd like to address Kershaw's place in the Cy Young race. He is the greatest pitcher of this generation, and one of the greatest pitchers of any generation, to ever play the sport. Seeing that I made this post a little later than I would've liked (Reddit was having some upload issues on their end recently), I'll point out that Kershaw isn't currently the major league WHIP leader, because he doesn't have enough innings to qualify for rate stats. Bam. So why the sudden positive spike now? What is ironic is that 39 year old Rich Hill is throwing harder than any time since sometime before 2015. Similarly, he put the slider where he needed to, and it helped that even in Coors, his out pitch still had more bite than the last time he faced the Rockies (also in 2019).

Though he recovered to go 16-5 with a 3.03 ERA in 28 starts and one relief appearance, Kershaw… Kershaw will get votes without question, and I think he's got a good shot at top 5 if he can hold onto his spot on the WHIP leaderboard. In 2017, he never once dipped under the 90 mph mark.

Kersh might not win Cy this year, but if he truly is back then he could very realistically make a good run at it in 2021 over 162 game when guys like Bauer or Darvish would likely fall off at some point in the middle or end of the year. But in the end (and I'll go more in depth on this next time), we should appreciate the one true fact of this season: Clayton Kershaw is back. Of course, Walker Buehler leads the starters. Tony Gonsolin, Brock Stewart and Dennis Santana are small sample sizes and Ross Stripling has been both a starter and reliever. But funny enough, he didn't even do it with his best stuff, necessarily. The big alarm is the drop in velocity for all-time great Clayton Kershaw. So the beauty of this start is that it wasn't particularly standout compared to other starts he's had this season, but it showcases very much who he is this season - a dominant pitcher in the league who can beat you, sharpest stuff or not (and yes, even at Coors). It's because of all the other guys in the conversation with him (Bauer, Darvish, deGrom, etc.) Although Kershaw’s ERA was somewhat suppressed by a luck-and-defense-aided .232 BABIP, his strikeout-minus-walk rate and average exit velocity allowed were his best since 2017, and he …

The results of Kershaw making the right pitches showed - he got 12 whiffs (really good), only allowed 3 hard hits, and his average exit velocity was below the hard-hit threshold. Tracking Clayton Kershaw’s Velocity in 2020: 9/19, LAD@COL. You can find the previous post here. In 2019, it dropped to less than 2%. Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. Have a look at the updated percentiles: This is another significant boost to Kershaw's ranks among these categories from his last start, especially in exit velocity (44% => 60%), hard hit rate (49% => 63%), and barrel rate (31% => 47%). Figures that the most successful visiting pitcher in Coors Field history, in a year where he found his old stuff again, would be primed for success there once again - and that's exactly what happened.

It’s no coincidence that his last fully healthy season was 2015 and that he’s pitched extensively in the post-season since 2013. Kershaw went into Coors Field, bogged down, and got the job done. He's not done competing for ERA titles and Cy Youngs yet. Coming off a start when Kershaw netted 20 whiffs and topped out at his season high of 93.7 MPH, on first glance, the velocity and whiffs might seem like a step back - but this isn't.

Reddit community for fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Part of it can be attributed to the results around the league, but independently, Kershaw gave up very little hard contact this time around. There wasn't much of an appreciable difference in Kershaw's zone usage either. I can think of so many great first half performances that ended up being mediocre finishes for players, but this year they'll never have the chance to flame out because of the short season. He's too much of a competitor for that. The RBI groundout was the only blemish, and Kershaw was nails the rest of the way. In another fantastic outing, Kershaw went 7 IP and finished with 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 6 K. Another day, another dominant outing for the ace. In 2018, only 10% of Kershaw's fastballs came in at 92 mph or faster. Clayton Kershaw, as of 9/19, is the major league WHIP leader. Ultimately, given the short year, I don't even really care about individual awards this year. His fastball was still faster than 2019, so he was able to get some life out of it and get corner strikes when he needed them. The site may not work properly if you don't, If you do not update your browser, we suggest you visit, Press J to jump to the feed. Bam. However, I did want to point something out on peripherals again. Kershaw’s average fastball velocity is not back to where it was during his peak, but he’s added 1.2 mph of extra oomph, jumping from an average of 90.3 mph in 2019 to 91.5 mph so far in 2020. To look at it another way, Kershaw is throwing a lot fewer slow fastballs. Let's see what he had to work with (courtesy of Baseball Savant): There honestly isn't that much to break down with the stuff this time around. The next starter that comes up could be Du… He isn't gonna win it. A shoulder injury prevented Kershaw from pitching in an exhibition game last spring. You can find the previous post here.

You might be familiar with the worrying downward trend from 2015-19 -- four straight years of declining velo -- as Kershaw slipped from 94.2 mph all the way down to 90.3 mph. Clayton Kershaw, as of 9/19, is the major league WHIP leader. Other than that, this was pretty typically zone usage for Kershaw - fastballs in the zone to both sides of the plate, and sliders on the bottom corners. Take a look: The only thing that stands out here are the higher percentage of pitches at the bottom of the strike zone, but when you throw 40 sliders in an outing, that would make sense. Short answer? https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/clayton-kershaw-477132 Clayton Kershaw.

All of his other categories improved as well (except for a mostly negligible decrease in fastball velocity), but those three have been the most concerning of his this season. This is the ninth installment on the topic I’m doing this year. The whole season is just so fluky and weird.