Congratulations Padre-Killer

Clayton Kershaw was just announced as the National League Cy Young winner today.  Congratulations to him, but you’ll forgive me if I’m not jumping for joy.  Kershaw has dominated the Padres during his career.

The lefty with a laser arm has spent four seasons in the Major Leagues.  During that time he has simply destroyed the competition.  He’s become one of the best young pitchers in baseball.  He may have already removed the “one of” qualifier.  In his career, Kershaw is 47-28 with a .288 ERA.  He’s already accumulated 745 strikeouts.  He’s averaged 4.225 WAR per year.  And all these numbers are just his career numbers.  When you break it down and take a look at Kershaw’s performance against the Padres, the numbers only get more impressive.

In 13 starts against the Padres in his career, Kershaw has posted a record of 9-4.  Forget no decisions.  He went 7 innings or more in 8 of those 13 starts.  He gave up 5 or less hits in 8 of the 13 starts.  Kershaw struck out a total of 67 batters against only 32 walks.  His ERA was 2.37.  Perhaps the most frightening thing is how much better Kershaw can be.  If it seems like he just keeps getting better, that’s because he is.  At least against the Padres:

As you can see by the trend lines, Kershaw is continuously increasing his strikeouts while reducing his walks.  That’s a deadly combination as shown by the Padres futility against him.  The career numbers of the 2011 Padres against Clayton Kershaw are pretty embarrassing.  Their collective line reads like this: .206/.254/.339 with 34 strikeouts, 11 walks, and 4 home runs.

If there was any silver lining for the Padres, it would be Kershaw’s success overall.  Sure he’s dominated the Padres, perhaps more than any other team, but when it comes to his strikeouts and walks, Kershaw dominates everyone.

The gap is between strikeouts and walks is widening at an amazing rate.  It was only a matter of time before Kershaw won the Cy Young.  So congratulations Clayton, just please stop pitching against the Padres.