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Clayton Kershaw should win the National League MVP

While many baseball analysts have argued over the past several weeks whether or not Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw should win the National League MVP, I'll decide for them - yes, he should.

The main argument against a pitcher winning the Most Valuable Player award is the fact he plays in roughly 25% of the team's games. The Los Angeles Dodgers are 82-62 on the season, which places them 3.5 games up on San Francisco in the NL West and one game up on Washington for home-field advantage in the playoffs. Clayton Kershaw is 18-3 this season (.857). The Dodgers are 20-4 in games he's started (.833), and 17-1 since June 2nd (.944). Los Angeles is just 62-58 (.517) in games Kershaw doesn't start. The .517 winning percentage would place the team 5th in the National League (behind Washington, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh), and force them to play Pittsburgh in a 1-game playoff, the winner heading to Washington to take on the Nationals.

So much for that argument then, right? Now onto Kershaw's insane statistics. In my lifetime, at least, I can't remember a pitcher being so dominant in a season.

Record: 18-3 (.857) - ranked 1st in the MLB in wins

ERA: 1.67 - ranked 1st (2nd is 2.09)

WHIP: 0.82 - ranked 1st (2nd is 0.92)

WAR: 7.5 - ranked 1st (2nd is 6.8)

K: 210 - ranked 7th

K/9: 10.66 - ranked 2nd

Complete games: 6 - ranked 1st

Shutouts: 2 - ranked 2nd

Quality start percentage: 92% - ranked 1st

If those numbers aren't crazy enough, Kershaw struggled in his first few starts this season. Since June 2nd, the Dodger ace has pitched 142 innings, has allowed just 19 earned runs, has struck out 164, walked only 20, and has an ERA of 1.20. The Dodgers are 17-1 in those starts (.944).

No matter how one wants to cut it, whether one wants to use the label best pitcher, best player, or Most Valuable Player, Clayton Kershaw is it, and at the end of the season, not only should he win the National League Cy Young award, but also the National League MVP award. Without him, the Dodgers have been a slightly above-average team. With him, they're currently on pace to have home-field advantage in the playoffs. If that's not proof enough that Kershaw is the MVP, I don't know what is...

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/28963/clayton-kershaw

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kershcl01.shtml?redir

http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings
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