Clayton Kershaw Should Win MVP
- Updated: November 13, 2014
In what has been a historic season for a once-in-a-generation pitcher, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers has once again run away with the National League Cy Young Award for the second consecutive year.
The only question now is whether or not Kershaw will become the first pitcher to win the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award since Bob Gibson in 1968.
With a unanimous 30 first-place votes, the Cy Young race was little more than a forgone conclusion and coronation for Kershaw as he became the youngest pitcher to win the award three times at the age of 26. Kershaw finished the season with a 21-3 record and a 1.77 ERA, the lowest in the Major Leagues for the fourth consecutive year.
The race for the National League’s Most Valuable Player will be a much tighter race. Clayton Kershaw will go up against Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins and Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who both had incredible seasons of their own.
Stanton finished the season with a .288 BA, .950 OPS, 105 RBI and led the National League with 37 HR before his season came to a brutal end in Milwaukee. Meanwhile McCutchen had an even better season then his 2013 MVP campaign as he finished with a .314 BA, .952 OPS, 25 HR and 85 RBI.
Nothing to take away from the achievements of Stanton and McCutchen but what Kershaw has managed to accomplish these last 4 seasons has been nothing short of remarkable. Kershaw is the most dominant pitcher in the game and is pulling off a remarkable string of success that few have ever matched.
There are those who argue that pitchers should not be allowed to win the Most Valuable Player Award, but that is a different debate for a different day. Clayton Kershaw is eligible to win and if that is the case then there is little doubt who deserves to win.
Out of the 27 games Kershaw pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers he won 21 of those including a 20-1 stretch to end the season, a 41 consecutive scoreless innings streak and a near-perfect shutout that will go down as one of the greatest games ever pitched. Without Kershaw the Dodgers would not have made the playoffs and to say he was the true key to the team’s success would be a monumental understatement. Dodgers went from a good to a great team with Kershaw on the mound.
While Stanton and McCutchen were certainly just as valuable to their teams, advance metrics still fall in favor of the Dodger’s ace. Wins Above Replacement shows just how much more valuable Kershaw was to his team as he finished with a 7.5 WAR as opposed to Stanton’s 6.5 WAR and McCutchen’s 6.4 WAR.
When it is all said and done, Clayton Kershaw will go down as one of the greatest pitchers who ever played the game. Whether or not he wins the 2014 National League Most Valuable Player Award, it will only serve as an unnecessary validation to his greatness. Today’s generation may not have had the chance to see Sandy Koufax pitch, but getting to see the legacy of Clayton Kershaw unfold is the next best thing.
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