I have been watching Clayton Kershaw dominate since I was in high school, so it is pretty incredible that I get to write an article about him today. Clayton has been one of the best pitchers in the league for a very long time, and this season he seems as good as ever at age 34. He missed about a month with a pelvis injury, but was terrific before he got hurt and terrific since he returned.
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Clayton is 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP, and I love this matchup for him to continue his great season. He has accumulated 69 K in 63.2 innings so far this season. He is over 6.5 in 6 of 11 starts this season including back to back vs the Padres and Cubs. He is in the 63rd percentile in K per inning, 80th percentile in swinging strike %, 78th percentile in K rate, 67th percentile in whiff rate, and 93rd percentile in chase rate.
He has a “5 pitch arsenal”, but throws his change up and sinker <1% of the time. He is moreso a 3 pitch pitcher with a slider, fastball, and his famous curveball. I have always been amazed at his velocity. He is not a flamethrower by any means, but very purposeful with the speed of his pitches. His fastball sits around 90-91 mph, slider 86 mph, and then takes off over 10 mph for his 73 mph curve. All these years later, the league is still trying to figure out how to hit that combination of pitches.
Ahhh, here we go again with the Angels. 2 days ago we watched Javier strike out the first 8 guys he got out, and I am excited to target them again. They continue to lead the league in K per game at 9.81, and have 42 strikeouts over the last 3 games. They have the worst contact percentage with pitches inside the zone and the 4th worst contact percentage on chased pitches. Get comfortable with these stats, it will be a long season and I will target them many many times unless they figure out how to make contact.
Kershaw’s elite ability to get batters to chase his slider and curveball will play a major factor in this one, and I love him to get 7+ strikeouts tonight.
Dodgers vs. Angels Player Prop Pick: Clayton Kershaw over 6.5 strikeouts | +102 at FanDuel
