good point indeed and not to mention how pressed the bullpen has been with short starts from guys like josh and malhömÖ wilson and kenley will greatly benefit from not having to fire up every day of two this, more than anything and i don't care how ready clayton believes he is dbb, honeycutt and the training staff need to intervene and do what's best for the team worst thing they could do would be to let him talk them into coming back too soon and suffering a setback much better to miss a couple more starts and be healthy down the stretch
I'll be there too. I was hoping for a miracle but from the sound of it they're going to take their time bringing him back. The way our staff has pitched, I'd say it's the right call to not rush him.
Kershaw on pace to start in Minors on Friday By Ken Gurnick | MLB.com LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will throw a bullpen session on Tuesday that will set him up to begin a Minor League rehab assignment Friday. Kershaw said he came out of his Sunday simulated game feeling fine. He's been on the disabled list since March 23 with a strained teres major muscle. Kershaw made 50 pitches on Sunday, which manager Don Mattingly called "basically a start. That's a game, and he bounced out good." Even if Kershaw extends into the 70-pitch neighborhood in the Minor Leagues on Friday, the club is likely to encourage him to make a second rehab start. Kershaw is eager to return, but even with a second outing, he could rejoin the Dodgers' rotation in Washington at the end of the upcoming trip. __
this saxon guy is an asshat so fwiw... Clayton Kershaw looks ready to go By Mark Saxon | ESPNLosAngeles.com -- 2 hours ago RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- Clayton Kershaw was as intense as ever, though he was about to pitch in a one-deck stadium where they hold an air-guitar contest on the roof of the home dugout between innings. Kershaw would later say he had fun, but it didn't look as if he were on any kind of vacation before the game. He followed his pre-start routine to a T. About 45 minutes before first pitch, he strolled out to the dugout and sat there, by himself, wearing a Dodgers jacket, a towel draped over his shoulders, tapping his heel nervously on the dugout floor. A few dozen fans, mostly kids, crowded around the rail of the dugout chanting, "Ker-shaw! Ker-shaw!", but he acted as if he couldn't hear them. He jogged out to left field and began to stretch. He ran some sprints. For a while, he just sat there on the grass, seemingly lost in thought. As usual, he didn't look like a man willing to think about anything other than how he could make hitters look as bad as humanly possible as often as possible. So, why not let him do it somewhere it can actually help the Dodgers get closer to their goal? Kershaw wouldn't say after his nice, easy, 56-pitch outing here whether he's ready to come off the disabled list and pitch in the major leagues again. He didn't say he wasn't, either. He only says he feels entirely healthy, and so the question seems to be, "Why not?" Kershaw isn't going to throw 100 pitches if he starts next week in Minnesota, where the Dodgers play an interleague series with the Twins. That would be a steep escalation from the mid-50s, but he could throw something like 75, with a long reliever in the bullpen ready to go, and still help ease the burden on the Dodgers' bullpen. Zack Greinke threw 83 pitches when he returned from a similar-length layoff last May, and he went on to have a dominant 4½ months. That seemed like the perfect template for an expedited-but-not-rushed return to the mound. It's hard to believe Kershaw is going to take his time with this thing. "I feel ready to go," Kershaw said. But go where? Five days from now, Rancho Cucamonga is on the road at Inland Empire, though it's only about 15 miles from their home. Triple-A Albuquerque is home against Salt Lake. That's a possibility. But if he feels this good, can hit the low-to-mid-90s with his fastball and throw all his secondary pitches, why waste his bullets facing minor leaguers? Kershaw might have gotten hurt in part because he had to ramp up so quickly in spring training, but this is a different situation. He has been throwing bullpen sessions for about 10 days now. He threw a 55-pitch simulated game at Dodger Stadium and now got through a game against real, opposing hitters with absolutely no pain. "Obviously, this was geared toward health rather than results, but I think it went OK on both fronts," Kershaw said. He's healthy. Give him the ball and let him do what they gave him all that money to do. It wasn't so he could beat the Inland Empire 66ers. __
yeah Saxon is an idiot but his closing line is on the money... it's time for CK stand on the correct mound
Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw not ready By Anthony Witrado | Special to ESPNLosAngeles.com Updated: April 27, 2014, 9:55 PM ET LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw will make one more rehab start before returning to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the left-handed ace didn't hide his feelings as he voiced his displeasure at the move Sunday. Kershaw, who has lobbied to come off the disabled list this week, instead will start Wednesday for Class AA Chattanooga. He was placed on the DL with inflammation in his back after his Opening Day start in Australia last month. "Not really," Kershaw said Sunday when asked if he was satisfied with the Dodgers' decision. "I did the best I could, but I'm not going to fight the team if everybody doesn't want me to do something. It's what they want me to do." Despite Kershaw's protests, the Dodgers want him to push his pitch count to around 80 before Kershaw return to the majors. The thought being is that when he finally does pitch for the Dodgers, he can give them 90-100 pitches. Kershaw threw a bullpen Sunday before the team's final game against the Colorado Rockies and said he feels normal, which is why he was trying so hard to make his next start in the big leagues. "That's the hard part," Kershaw said. "You want to pitch in a game when you feel healthy." __
If you want the guy to tell you when he's hurt then you kind of have to let him pitch when he says he's not.
Team Report - LOS ANGELES DODGERS Yahoo! Sports The SportsXchange -- 39 minutes ago Clayton Kershaw is making up for the 32 games he missed when he was on the disabled list with a strained muscle in his upper left back. He allowed three hits and one run in five innings Sunday in a 6-1 rain-shortened win over the Rockies. The game was called after 5 /2 innings, following a 1-hour, 35-minute rain delay. It was Kershaw's 12th career complete game and his first and the shortest in the big leagues this season. He had no walks and tied his season high with nine strikeouts, the fourth straight start and sixth this season that he has reached that strikeout total. Four straight starts with nine strikeouts matches Kershaw's career-high streak. He also did it from June 20-July 7, 2011. In 48 1/3 innings this season, Kershaw (5-2) has 64 strikeouts and just seven walks for a 9.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio that leads the National League for pitchers with a minimum of 40 innings pitched. Kershaw has a career-high four games with nine strikeouts and no walks this season. In the past 10 years, only three pitchers have had more such starts in one season -- Randy Johnson (six in 2004), Erik Bedard (five in 2007) and Cliff Lee (five in 2013). Since 1914, there have only been 10 pitchers with more such games in a single season (13 total times). __
