As the Los Angeles Dodgers lost multiple players to injury and had others who were failing to meet expectations, Clayton Kershaw and Corey Seager largely served as the backbone for the team. The duo, along with Kenley Jansen, were named to the National League roster for the 2016 All-Star Game, though only Jansen and Seager were able to participate.
The honor was well-deserved for the three teammates, particularly Kershaw, who is in the midst of perhaps the best season of his career — his current back injury not withstanding. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is 11-2 with a 1.79 ERA, 1.70 FIP, 0.73 WHIP, and an astounding 145 strikeouts to just nine walks in 121 innings.
Kershaw was on pace for another Cy Young and may very well pitch his way to the award upon returning from the disabled list. After previously awarding him the first-quarter Cy Young Award, ESPN’s Jayson Stark named the Dodgers’ ace the MVP at the midway point of the season:
But you know how I define “valuable,” really? By reminding myself what the Dodgers are with Clayton Kershaw and without him. And that about settles it. When Kershaw pitches, the Dodgers have roughly the same winning percentage (.875) as the Golden State Warriors. And when anyone else pitches, they have roughly the same winning percentage (.493) as the Buffalo Sabres. So — any more questions?
Stark also stuck with Kershaw as the first-half Cy Young Award winner:
His first-half WHIP (0.73) is the lowest over the first half of any season since at least 1913, according to Baseball-Reference.com’s indispensable Play Index. (And the previous standard, Grover Cleveland Alexander’s 0.75, had held up a while — like since 1915.) Kershaw’s absurd strikeout/walk ratio (145-to-9, which comes to 16.1-to-1) also happens to rank No. 1 in all the first halves in the Play Index era. Imagine that. You know how many pitchers before him had ever reached the All-Star break with an ERA under 1.80, this many strikeouts, a strikeout rate this good and 11 wins or more? Yeah, that would be zero.
As for Seager, who has entered the MVP discussion, Stark named the young shortstop his midseason NL Rookie of the Year:
If he keeps mashing at his current rate, we would be looking at a fellow with an .879 OPS, 31 homers and 76 extra-base hits, which would be the most home runs ever by a rookie shortstop (topping Nomar Garciaparra’s 30). And the most extra-base hits ever by an NL rookie shortstop (topping Hanley Ramirez’s 74). And the highest OPS by any rookie shortstop who ever lived (beating out Nomar’s .875). So that kind of caught my attention.
In his first full big league season Seager is batting .297/.357/.521 with 17 home runs and 42 RBIs. He is also tied for third in the NL with 60 runs scored. What’s more, Seager leads the Dodgers in batting average, total hits (105), doubles (22) and home runs, among other categories.
