Clayton Kershaw Has Curves

I tell you, that curve is a thing of beauty. When a 19-year-old A-ball prospect — a highly-touted one, yes, but still — can buckle the knees of a decent major league hitter with his stuff, it’s pretty special. The kid needs to make the majors one day so I can watch curveballs like that all the time.

Kershaw’s performance in Florida has brought out the Promote Him to Los Angeles crazies. I mean, yes, our fifth starter currently appears to be Esteban Loaiza. That’s a little disconcerting. But it doesn’t mean the Dodgers can’t do well, and it certainly doesn’t mean there’s any reason to rush Kershaw to the majors before he’s ready.

According to The Baseball Cube, Kershaw’s career minor league stats are like this:

10-7, 159 IP, 117 H, 217 K, 72 BB, 17 WP, 2.72 ERA, 1.19 WHIP

Divide those up by levels for better analysis.

GCL Dodgers (Rookie): 2-0, 37 IP, 28 H, 54 K, 5 BB, 8 WP, 1.95 ERA, 0.89 WHIP
Great Lakes Loons (A): 7-5, 97.1 IP, 72 H, 134 K, 50 BB, 8 WP, 2.77 ERA, 1.25 WHIP
Jacksonville Suns (AA): 1-2, 24.2 IP, 17 H, 29 K, 17 BB, 1 WP, 3.65 ERA, 1.38 WHIP

I put wild pitches in there because I think, combined with his walk rate, it’s indicative of how he needs to develop better control — even when he’s not walking people, he’s still a little unrefined in the control department. At Great Lakes, he had a walk rate of over 4 1/2 walks per nine innings, and when he got to Jacksonville, it jumped to over six walks per nine innings. That’s a lot of walks. To his credit, his hit rates are all under 7 per nine and his strikeout rates are all over 10 per nine, but this is all minor league stuff. I’m no expert, but I don’t think that, in the majors, his walks would go down and he’d maintain the hit and K rates. Call me crazy.

If we see him in September, I’m okay with that, but I’d hate for him to be rushed to the majors just because someone had a panic attack about how our fifth starter isn’t very good. That’s why he’s a fifth starter. That’s no cause for alarm given what we have in the rest of the rotation. If we had held on to Brett Tomko and Mark Hendrickson and planned to use them as starters, then yeah, I’d worry, but that’s not the case. The Dodgers need to be careful with this kid and not trade him anywhere and then bring him up when he can’t possibly abuse minor league hitting any further. Rushing him could be costly. Maybe it won’t be, but is that a chance you want to take?

The kid has a serious heater and a nasty curve, and I can’t wait to see him make the big club. Now is just not the time.

Kershaw will stay a while with Dodgers

he day that started with Manager Joe Torre's maintaining that the 19-year-old left-hander wasn't contending for a spot in the rotation ended with his revealing that the organization's top prospect would spend the remainder of the spring in major league camp. The decision to move up Kershaw from minor league camp, Torre said, was made before Kershaw threw only 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 fourth inning in the Dodgers' 4-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in front of 9,293, the largest crowd to ever see a game at Holman Stadium.

"It won't hurt him to be around the camp and be able to have the experience," said Torre, reemphasizing the Kershaw wasn't being looked at as a potential member of the rotation.

Kershaw said he was surprised by the news, which was first delivered to him by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt.

"I'm pretty excited," he said.

And, from Russell Martin's view behind home plate, pretty spectacular.

"He keeps his fastball down and knee high," Martin said. "There's not really much you can do with a 96-mile-per-hour fastball knee high. And he has that tremendous breaking ball. The hitters have to pick one because if they're sitting on one, they can't hit the other. He's pitching like a major-league pitcher. You can just tell by how the hitters are reacting to his stuff, getting jammed, buckling on curveballs."

Buckling on one of those curveballs and striking out looking to end the inning was Sean Casey. Earlier, Kershaw retired Mike Lowell on a popup and J.D. Drew on a broken-bat groundout.

"I wish he had a Red Sox uniform on," Boston Manager Terry Francona said. "I can see why he's the buzz of spring training."

Relayed Francona's words, Torre replied with a grin, "Tell him it's tampering and I'll report him to the commissioner's office."

In a more serious moment, Torre stressed the importance of not rushing the kid.

"The thing that we have to make sure we put first is what's best for him," Torre said. "What's best for him is going to be the best for the organization in the long term."

Loaiza impressive

Esteban Loaiza, who is in line to be the Dodgers' fifth starter, struck out four batters over three scoreless innings. His health problems behind him, Loaiza said he has been able to be consistent with his throwing motion, something he struggled to do in his injury-riddled 2007 season.

Torre was impressed, noting how Loaiza worked his way through a Red Sox lineup that included David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Lowell.

On the mend

Closer Takashi Saito said that he didn't feel any pain in his strained right calf during fielding drills and that he would throw a side session today. "I'd have to put more pressure on my leg, so I still feel uncertain. But if I'm afraid, I can't advance." . . . With Andruw Jones by his side to translate, Torre spoke to infield prospect Tony Abreu, who rushed himself back from an injury only to hurt himself again in his spring debut Friday. "I just let him know that we want to get him well," Torre said. . . . Nomar Garciaparra remained sidelined because of swelling in his right hand. . . . Backup catcher Gary Bennett, who was inactive for two days because of back spasms, resumed activity. . . . Mark Sweeney, who had his knee drained last week, also started working out again. . . . Until Sunday, the largest crowd to see a game at Holman Stadium was 9,028 fans on March 10, 1991 for a contest against the New York Mets. . . . Matt Kemp's second home run of the spring was a monster, a three-run shot against Daisuke Matsuzaka that cleared the grassy knoll behind the left-field fence.