Clayton Kershaw Deserves To Be In The 2015 MLB All-Star Game
There’s no way you can ignore Clayton Kershaw, even in his darker moments.
On Sunday and Monday evening the 2015 MLB All-Star Game rosters were officially announced with the starters on Sunday and the reserves and pitchers on Monday to fill out 33 spots of the 34 spots on the All-Star rosters for the American and National League.
Out of the 33 spots on the National League All-Star roster, four Dodgers were selected to represent the boys in blue in next week’s 86th MLB All-Star Game.
The four Dodgers were:
OF Joc Pederson
SP Zack Greinke
Now, if you like me you’re thinking : where is Clayton Kershaw?
Well, Kershaw didn’t get selected by his fellow players or by the National League manager Bruce Bochy (San Francisco Giants) to fill out the rest of the 33 spots on the National League roster.
So, does this mean that Kershaw isn’t going to be an All-Star for the fifth consecutive year?
No, not yet anyway.
The last spot on the roster is still up for grabs between five players on the American League and National League.
The final player to fill out the spot on both rosters will be settled between the E-surance All-Star Game 2015 Final Vote, which features Clayton Kershaw.
American League
Xander Bogaerts – Boston Red Sox
Yoenis Cespedes – Detroit Tigers
Brian Dozier – Minnesota Twins
Brett Gardner – New York Yankees
Mike Moustakas – Kansas City Royals
National League
Johnny Cueto – Cincinnati Reds
Jeurys Familia – New York Mets
Clayton Kershaw – Los Angeles dodgers
Carlos Martinez – St. Louis Cardinals
Troy Tulowitzki – Colorado Rockies
When looking at the five players for the National League you could argue that every players deserves to be an All-Star, but Kershaw truly deserves to be on the roster.
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Kershaw is considered one of the best pitchers in the Majors and in the world. Even though Kershaw is struggling this year, he’s still putting up impressive stats, it’s just that these impressive stats aren’t at the stats we usually see when Kershaw is at his best.
When looking at Kershaw numbers compared to other three pitchers.
Only one pitcher (Carlos Martinez has 9) has more wins then him, but Kershaw would have as much wins as Martinez if it wasn’t for the Dodgers lack of offense.
In Kershaw’s last four games, the Dodgers only lost by 1-2 runs with Kershaw throwing 6-7 innings.
vs NYM 1-2 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER
at MIA 2-3 7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER
at CHC 2-4 7 IP, 4 H, 3 ER
vs TEX 3-5 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER
With putting this in perspective, Kershaw has gave great pitching performances for the Dodgers, but the Dodgers haven’t been able to supply runs for Kershaw to get the victories for Kershaw and for the Dodgers.
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Kershaw even has the most innings pitched and most strikeouts then any other pitcher in the Esurance All-Star Game 2015 Final Vote with 114 IP and 147 K.
Compared to Johnny Cueto with 104.2 IP and 100 K and Carlos Martinez with 100 IP and 105 K. As Jeurys Familia has thrown 39.2 IP and 41 K, but he’s a relief pitcher, not a starting pitcher.
As you take all of this consideration, I don’t even understand how Kershaw wouldn’t win the final vote or even be on the 2015 National League All-Star roster — as Kershaw has represented the face of the National League and Major League Baseball for a couple of years now.
Who knows?
Maybe if Clayton Kershaw is snubbed from the 2015 All-Star Game, that he may start the second half of the season with a chimp on his shoulder and show the MLB community that he’s still as great as he used to be.
But I don’t think he really cares about being an All-Star as he’s won basically every honorable award a pitcher with greatness could get.
Plus, Clayton Kershaw’s mindset for this year is to give his team the best performance game in and game out to get the Dodgers to the World Series, and to bring the World Series back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1988.
So being at the 2015 All-Star game may not even bother Kershaw.
If you would like to vote for Clayton Kershaw. Voting for the Esurance All-Star Game 2015 Final Vote closes on Friday, July 10 at 1 PM PT on the MLB website.