Los Angeles Dodgers: Bold predictions for Clayton Kershaw in 2019

1. Clayton Kershaw regains some velocity

When Clayton Kershaw was at his best he was pumping 95 MPH fastballs at a consistent rate to go along with his wipeout curveball and eventually a refined slider. Coming from Texas, Kershaw had that big Texas arm feel that he could pump anything by you, even though he was not in the high 90s.

That did lead to some of his postseason woes as he would continually call on the fastball too frequently, hoping to simply beat the batter at the plate. That does not work in the postseason and has given Kershaw quite the negative resume.

His velocity has since decreased and Kershaw is now a completely different pitcher than he was before. Instead of consistently sitting in the mid-90s, Kershaw has fallen to the low nineties and even hitting the high eighties at times.

This has been a big reason why Kershaw has gone to unhittable to much easier to work runs out of. He is still an elite pitcher but has to approach things differently.

Instead of relying on that big fastball, Kershaw has mastered the art of hitting corners, locating his stuff and mixing up his pitches at a much higher level.

Those are valuable traits to have, especially when Kershaw regains his velocity. While he likely won’t be hitting 95 at a consistent level, an offseason to work out and get fully healthy is going to do great things for Kershaw.

This is a turning point in his career and he realizes that and is going to do what it takes to get some of that velocity back. Kershaw will be consistently sitting 93-94 in 2019, topping out at 96.