Thanks Kershaw for preventing us from being swept in the season opening series. Now teach your hitters how to hit so your fellow pitchers can get wins too.
Rosenthal On Kershaw, Fernandez, Davis Clayton Kershaw's people and the Dodgers are still talking with the season underway, but no one really knows what's going on behind closed doors. At the same time, no one should be surprised if Kershaw winds up being the first true $200MM pitcher. Inking him for a total of ten years would keep him locked up through his age 34 season and even though that length sounds crazy, Felix Hernandez is signed through age 33 and Justin Verlander through age 36. Rosenthal's guess is an eight-year, $200MM extension on top of the two years of control that he has left.
Weekend wrap: Strasburg is no Kershaw By David Schoenfield | ESPN.com April, 7, 2013 | 11:55 PM ET Sunday's day of aces turned more into a game of Crazy Eights -- there were some crooked numbers put up against several of baseball's top pitchers and none of the anticipated showdowns materialized into a pitcher's duel. One of the disappointing matchups was the Stephen Strasburg-Johnny Cueto game in Cincinnati. There's really not much at stake in early April, but this game had that little extra taste of powerhouse teams trying to get a little early bragging rights. The Reds had wiped out the Nationals 15-0 on Friday and the Nationals won 7-6 on Saturday, blowing a four-run lead only to win in 11 innings, so this game would determine the series winner. Cueto gave up a three-run homer to Kurt Suzuki in the second inning, but did settle down and didn't allow anything else through his six frames. Strasburg's final line -- 5.1 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 5 Ks -- looked liked he got knocked around, but that wasn't really the case. On the other hand, he wasn't the dominant Strasburg we unfairly expect to see every start. In the first inning, the Reds scored three runs with only one hit out of the infield: -- With one out, Xavier Paul weakly chopped an 0-2 curveball off Strasburg's glove for an infield hit. -- Joey Votto does what Joey Votto does: he walked on five pitches. Strasburg tried to bust him twice inside but was way off the plate on both pitches. -- Brandon Phillips hit a first-pitch fastball hard to third that Ryan Zimmerman put a nice diving stop on but lost the ball on the transfer. -- With the bases loaded, Jay Bruce lined a 2-2 curve to left-center for a two-run double. -- Todd Frazier's infield grounder plated the third run. The curveball to Bruce wasn't in a bad location -- low and away -- but was a bit lazy without a sharp break, and Bruce was clearly sitting on it. Until Strasburg gets better at commanding his fastball inside to lefties, it's going to be easier for hitters to lean over the plate with two strikes -- or at least anticipate that outside curveball. Here, check out Strasburg's fastballs to Cincinnati's left-handers on Sunday: In the sixth, the Reds scored three more runs. Speedy pinch hitter Derrick Robinson slapped a base hit past a drawn-in Zimmerman for his first major league hit. Shin-Soo Choo then lined a 1-2 high fastball into center to push Robinson to third. With the infield halfway, Paul hit a hard grounder to second baseman Danny Espinosa, who threw home instead of turning two. Everybody was safe. Davey Johnson said Espinosa should have turned two. Espinosa said, "The way I thought was, we were playing halfway because we were trying to cut that run down." After Votto grounded out, Phillips hit a 2-2 changeup into left for an RBI single, knocking Strasburg from the game. The final run scored on Bruce's infield hit. So it was a bit of a bad-luck outing for Strasburg, as he walked four and was unable to punch out Bruce and Phillips in key situations. He apparently had some problems pitching out of the stretch in spring training as well. "I have to look at video and see what I'm doing out there," Strasburg told MLB.com. "Some days, you kind of give up a lot of singles, and when they all get on base, they seem to come up with the clutch hits. You have to tip your cap and move forward." I think there's another issue brewing here. Let's see Strasburg become a great pitcher before we declare him the greatest pitcher. In Vegas, he was the betting favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award over Clayton Kershaw. He and Kershaw received the most Cy Young predictions on the ESPN staff balloting. Sure, that's somewhat understandable considering his dominant strikeout rate from last season (30.2 percent, highest in the majors for any pitcher with 150 innings since Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez in 2002). So, yes, there's no denying Strasburg's potential. But let's keep in mind he's never pitched more than seven innings in a game, let alone 200 innings in a season. He's not quite a polished pitcher yet, especially against left-handed batters, who hit a respectable .271/.326/.387 off him last year, including .323 off his fastball. Kershaw -- only a few months older than Strasburg, mind you -- is at the peak of his powers, a guy who could easily be gunning for his third straight Cy Young Award (he finished second to R.A. Dickey last year). After an Opening Day shutout against the Giants, Kershaw was brilliant again on Saturday, allowing two hits in seven scoreless innings against the Pirates. He's thrown 94 and 97 pitches in his two outings, whereas as Strasburg labored through 114 on Sunday. I do think Strasburg will get to that next level. He may reel off 15 brilliant starts in a row. But he's not Kershaw just yet. The hype is a product of today's world, but how about if the man pitches eight innings in a game before we say he's as good as Kershaw. __
The article didn't have very much construction or development. Title got me excited but all it did was summarize his start and then do a quick half assed comparison at the end.
And how long he's been successful for. Kershaw and Strasburg shouldn't even be mentioned in a comparison.
DC is the nations capital and they finally have a good team and the Nats and Braves are the strongest East Coast teams right now so the media is going to suck up to them. Hell you can watch the Nats and still be in bed by 11 in you are an East Coast sports mogul. Try living there and following Kershaw.
Strasburg has the most talent of any SP in the majors, he just hasn't put it all together yet. He has more upside than Kershaw, but Kershaw is better right now.
I'd say his floor is significantly lower than Kershaw's too. Tommy John surgery at age 21 with less than 70 pitches in the majors does not bode well.