Dodgers: Mitch White Talks the Lessons of Dodgers Clayton Kershaw
The Hall of Fame awaits, but right now Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is preparing to return from a lower back issue and hopefully help the Dodgers play into November.
Kershaw has won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about him is that he’s remained effective long after injuries crept in and his fastball velocity took a big dip. Starting in 2016, the first year the star lefty started fewer than 27 games in a full season, Kershaw is 78-31 with a 2.61 ERA. For comparison, Jacob deGrom, another great pitcher with a history of injuries, is 57-40 with a 2.45 ERA in that same time period.
Former Dodger Mitch White was traded to the Blue Jays at the trade deadline, and he recently joined “At the Letters” on Toronto’s Sportsnet channel to talk about a variety of topics. The Dodgers came up quite often in the discussion, and he had some interesting thoughts on Kershaw and what makes him so great.
“I think, for me, Kersh was special, just because, obviously, he’s a legend, but he’s also a guy who’s just so disciplined with what he does. He knows exactly what he’s trying to do, and it’s about the execution for him. Obviously, he’s got this great stuff, but the reason he’s so good is because he executes glove-side heater, glove-side slider, to a T. And he has other wrinkles, obviously, but that’s his bread and butter, he knows what he’s doing, and that’s all he does, all he needs to do. … It’s incredible, because he’s just better than the hitters. He beats them up, wears them down, and that’s it.”
Kershaw’s preparation and routine are legendary, of course, but it’s striking to see the legend’s impact on a fellow big-leaguer like White. And, as White went on to say, it’s not just Kershaw’s famously hard work that make him great. He also has an almost supernatural feel for the game.
“Kersh has an extraordinary feel for the game, I’ll be sitting on the bench with him and he’ll notice these tiny little weird details. … It’s small stuff. Like, sitting on the bench, there’s a guy on first, a random 1-0 count, and he just sees something. He like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna run here,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, I don’t know.’ And then he runs. And you ask him why, and he has no idea, he just felt it. That kind of feel, I guess, is just cool, it’s just different.”
We knew there must be a reason why Kershaw could lose several miles an hour off his fastball and still remain one of the top pitchers in the game. From listening to Mitch White, it sounds like it’s a healthy mix of discipline, execution, and feel for the game.
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