Quote Originally Posted by Sanlmar View Post
It’s just stating the obvious but

What an enormous swing that last game of the World Series was for him. Maybe the biggest swing ever in sports? I mean it was Kershaw and his myth and it was the World Series. That’s pretty big stuff.

No matter what people say about nerds and analytics - recency is how people make decisions.

If in some alternate universe Kershaw won - all would have been forgiven. The Hamilton guy would be writing a Broadway play about Kershaw.

I have come to like Kershaw the man. He’s a church going, simple and sincere guy. He has stood tall and owned up to not pitching well. Classy.

He has small kids about to enter school. There is no way he wants to raise them in LA.

There are moments I feel bad about kicking him around the block. It’s just that he and the team he plays for are so monumentally over rated. People are idiots. I am morally bound to take the other side. It happens to pay well too. Just a fringe benefit.
You just seem to enjoy hating the Dodgers.

For some reason it didn't bother you when an 87-win, mediocre Giants team won the World Series in 2014, because Madison Bumgarner was super hot and carried them.

But whenever the Dodgers have any kind of success, you add some qualifier.

"They play in a slap-nut division"

"They aren't winning championships."

"They're spending so much money, of course they're having some success."

"The AL teams are far superior."

The bottom line is that the Dodgers have been a very successful franchise over the past 13 seasons.

9 playoff appearances. 8 division titles. 6 NLCS appearances (including 3 straight recently). Two consecutive World Series appearances.

They came a game away from beating a very tough Houston team, and lost to an excellent Red Sox team which was destroying everyone.

They were under the salary cap coming into 2018, even with junk contracts like Kemp's on the books.

They deserve props for all of these accomplishments.

Unfortunately, they haven't ever been a great team, aside from some improbable mid-late season runs where they went 43-7 and 42-8 in 2013 and 2017. They've just been good to very good every year, and it's never quite enough to win it all.

Regarding Kershaw, he was astoundingly good for 10 years. Now he's entering a second phase of his career when he will just be good, but no longer a pitcher you fear facing.

As you said, he is a good Christian boy who doesn't cause problems off the field, is married to the girl he dated in high school, gives to charity because his heart really is in it (as opposed to just PR reasons), and probably doesn't even cheat on his wife.

His personality is a bit boring, so he isn't as marketable as he could have been, but that boring personality also is what makes him a quality guy off the field.

Unfortunately, he does have a bit of a temper, and he gets his mind worked up too easily, so he's not particularly good in the clutch. That's what's caused him to struggle in the postseason. That probably won't ever change.