Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws a pitch against the Miami Marlins. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Though the season is only a month in and starting pitchers have, at most, seven starts under their belt, there are already a few pitchers who have distinguished themselves from the rest of the pack.
Clay Buchholz of the Boston Red Sox
Clayton Daniel Buchholz of the Boston Red Sox threw a no-hitter in his second career start back in 2007, and since then he has had an up-and-down career. In his first full season in 2010, Buchholz went 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA over the course of 28 starts — pretty promising. However, just like the two years before 2010 (which were spent mostly injured or ineffective) his 2011 campaign revisited those bad times. He only pitched in 14 games, winning six and losing three of them to the tune of a respectable 3.48 ERA. In 2012, Buchholz stayed healthy, which at this point in his career was looking like the best-case scenario for the righty. He pitched a career high 29 games, all starts, and won 11 of them for a bad Boston team — his ERA was in the mid-fours and he only compiled 120 strikeouts over 189.1 innings. If this was the type of season the Red Sox could rely on from Buchholz, they would’ve been happy: the numbers weren’t tremendous but he pitched the majority of his proposed starts.
Well, Buchholz has shaken off his demons. He’s made an incredible start to the season. He leads all of Major League Baseball with 50.2 innings pitched through seven games. He won his first six games before a no-decision on May 6th, which has left his record untouched at 6-0. His early season Wins Above Replacement (WAR) rating of 2.4 leads all MLB pitchers-which has been done so by having the third most strikeouts in all of baseball (56) and a 1.60 earned run average and 1.03 walks plus hits per innings pitched (WHIP) average-both tops in the majors. While the biggest key for Buchholz is his health — he has never started more than 29 games in a season — it is certainly a good time for the Red Sox to start believing they finally have the ace they once thought they had when they drafted him eight years ago. And good timing for Buchholz, as well: At 28, he is in the prime of his career and coming up on his contract negotiations — he is currently signed through 2015.
Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers
In the National League, things become a bit simpler. In 2012, R.A. Dickey, the knuckleballer pitching for the New York Mets was the Cy Young winner after a miraculous and unexpected season at age 37. He narrowly edged out the 2011 winner, Clayton Edward Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, looking to win the award for two consecutive years. But that hasn’t slowed the 25-year-old southpaw from coming out of the gates strong in 2013. In his 2011 Cy Young winning season, Kershaw pulled off the rare triple-crown award; leading the National League in wins (21), earned run average (2.28) and strikeouts (248). He was the far away favorite to win the Cy Young that year and it looked to be the first of many for the Dallas, Texas native. Unlike Buchholz, Kershaw has hardly ever missed a start in his career and has improved every year; going from great to arguably the best pitcher in the game. In his six-year career, Kershaw has compiled 1026 strikeouts in just 992.2 innings. His career ERA of 2.74 and career WHIP of 1.13 would be an incredible five game stretch for most pitchers.
Like Buchholz, Kershaw is playing for his next contract, and is arbitration-eligible after this season — he currently makes $11 million. He could arguably earn the highest arbitration salary in the history of the game if the Dodgers don’t work out a deal with him before then. Failing to do so would be unwise of the Dodgers: Kershaw is off to one of his best starts. His 1.66 ERA and 0.90 are among the best in all of baseball and he is fifth in total strikeouts with 52. He has a 2.2 WAR thus far, which trails only Buchholz for all pitchers in the majors. There is much less concern for the Dodgers about the health of Kershaw than there is for the Red Sox with Buchholz, so Dodgers fans have the luxury of sitting back and watching with far more certainty another Cy Young season in the making.
It’s too early to say whether or not both Clays can take home the Cy Young for their respective leagues, but they couldn’t have begun their campaigns any better. Individual accolades are always nice, but you can be certain that neither care more about the award than pitching in the playoffs — something neither have done since 2009.
