Rotoprofessor.com: Will Kershaw be 2009s Lincecum?

Another in a line of baseball articles from our friend at rotoprofessor.com, Eric Stashin is continuing to put out great baseball info along with a some football stuff. For those who are new to Fighting Chance, Eric and I did a great (yet short lived) radio show together on blogtalkradio.com in which I often got the better of him in debates (that last part might not be true). But he will continue to put out articles about baseball to get you ready for 2009. Enjoy this one.

Clayton Kershaw was one of the more hyped young pitchers of 2008, though his numbers did not quite match the attention he received. That is somewhat similar to a young pitcher who made his debut in 2007, then took the baseball world by storm last season in the Giants Tim Lincecum. Let’s take a look at how their rookie seasons stack up before we get into the rest of the information:

Kershaw (’08): 5-5, 4.26 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 100 K in 107.2 IP
Lincecum (’07): 7-5, 4.00 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 150 K in 146.1 IP

Yes, Lincecum’s numbers were a bit better across the board, especially in the WHIP department. It wasn’t that Lincecum had tremendously better control, because he was walking 4.00 batters per 9 innings in his rookie season, compared to Kershaw’s 4.35. No, he was just less hittable, allowing opponents to hit .228 against him, compared to Kershaw’s .264.

That’s a big difference, but one that I would anticipate Kershaw, who hadn’t pitched above Double A prior to last season, to correct, at least partially, in ‘09. It’s not like the number is terrible, not by any stretch, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Had he had enough innings to qualify, he pretty much would have found him smack in the middle of the league, right in line with Barry Zito (.268), Dana Eveland (.266) and Jamie Moyer (.264). Kershaw’s pure stuff is better than all of those pitchers, and I expect him to use it significantly better with a year under his belt.

The strikeouts are another number worth noting.

For the rest, click here.