Dodgers of the Decade: Left-Handed Starter
January 4, 2010 at 7:27 am | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Kaz Ishii, Odalis Perez, Randy Wolf | 28 CommentsI have to say, I’m impressed. I would have thought that Andre Ethier’s 2009 heroics would have won him more votes, but Shawn Green crushed him 79% to 18% (with just 3% for J.D. Drew. So we now have our complete lineup of the decade…
Dodgers of the Decade team:
C: Russell Martin (68%)
1B: James Loney (62%)
2B: Jeff Kent (88%)
3B: Adrian Beltre (80%)
SS: Rafael Furcal (87%)
LF: Gary Sheffield (62%)
CF: Matt Kemp (94%)
RF: Shawn Green (79%)
…and now we’re moving on to pitchers, and rather than go through an entire staff we’re going to pick five arms - top lefty & righty starters, top lefty & righty relievers (non-closers), and top closer. The threshold for the starters is going to be 50 starts – so let’s say sorry right off the bat to guys like Omar Daal, David Wells, and Carlos Perez.
Left-Handed Starter
Odalis Perez (120 starts, 2002-06)
Dodger stats: 45-40, 3.94 ERA, 102 ERA+, .715 OPS against
WAR: 4.5
Kaz Ishii (86 starts, 2002-04)
Dodger stats: 36-25, 4.30 ERA, 92 ERA+, .754 OPS against
WAR: 0.5
Randy Wolf (52 starts, 2007, 2009)
Dodger stats: 20-13, 3.72 ERA, 110 ERA+, .695 OPS against
WAR: 3.3
Clayton Kershaw (51 starts, 2008-09)
Dodger stats: 13-13, 3.36 ERA, 120 ERA+, .656 OPS against
WAR: 5.4
Top three seasons
4.2 WAR Perez, 2002
4.2 WAR Kershaw, 2009
3.4 WAR Perez, 2004
Remember, this is “Dodger of the Decade”, not “who’s the best right now” or “who will be the best”, because obviously Kershaw would crush that. You can still vote for him if you want, of course, just make sure it’s for the right reasons.
Top lefty starter of the decade?
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Bleep all that. I voted for Clayton because of my whole man-crush thing. If that’s not the right reasons, I don’t know what is.
Comment by Travis— January 4, 2010 #
Bleep all that. I voted for Clayton because I can’t vote for that fat toad Odalis Perez!
Comment by Steve Dimig— January 4, 2010 #
Seriously. We must have had some pretty crap (or not lasting) left handed starters if Odalis-freaking-Perez is actually getting a serious look for Dodger LH starter of the decade.
Comment by The Fury— January 4, 2010 #
Damn, I had forgotten just how good Odalis Perez was for a while!
Comment by Greg— January 4, 2010 #
Bleep all that. I voted for Clayton because he still can’t grow a proper beard yet.
Comment by Chris— January 4, 2010 #
See, this is why fans should never be allowed to vote for anything.
Comment by Shmolnick— January 4, 2010 #
I don’t see what is wrong with voting for Kershaw. The main reason one would vote for Perez is because of the number of games he started. True he had a few excellent years, but the rest were pretty bad, so why credit him over Kershaw who has been part of two Dodger trips to the NLCS?
Perez also had the Izturis, Cora, Beltre infield for most of his starts.
Speaking of Beltre, an MLB trade rumors article mentioned that Jon Heyman thought the Dodgers could be a surprise landing spot for him. I didn’t see him mention it at the link and he makes junk up, but it still got me excited.
Comment by Table— January 4, 2010 #
Why isnt Mark Hendrickson on the list?!
oh well. went with CK
Comment by Joey E.— January 4, 2010 #
Randy Wolf gets my vote, but it’s mostly a “meh” vote. Can’t bring myself to vote for Perez and as for Kershaw, I love the guy but like Ethier in right I think we’ll be contemplating him as LHP of the next decade.
Also: this list sucks. Seriously, that’s the best we can come up with in 10 years? *facepalm*
Comment by Stephen— January 4, 2010 #
Sad, isn’t it?
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— January 4, 2010 #
Damn, this was the toughest group to vote for. As much as it pained me, I voted for Odalis ” They treat me like a trash” Perez. Say what you will, he was pretty consistent over his career in Dodger blue. I remember the many times he took no-hitters into the seventh inning. Randy Wolf had a nice 2009, but that’s it. Clayton Kershaw didn’t put in enough work to validate LH Starter of the decade.
Comment by Penos Cabell— January 4, 2010 #
Joey E. is right. You can’t allow me to vote for Hendrickson? C’mon, that guy deserves some credit for making us all laugh–or cringe.
Comment by Evan Pug-h— January 4, 2010 #
Man crushes have nothing to do with it. Kershaw is better, and not just marginally better, MUCH better in nearly every category:
Odie – Kershaw
3.94 ERA < 3.36 ERA
102 ERA+ < 120 ERA+
6.2 K/9 4.6 BB/9
8.8 H/9 < 7.4 H/9
1.1 HR/9 < 0.6 HR/9
.716 OPS < .656 OPS <- Seriously, take a good long look at this. this is one point higher than the OPS that Slappy put up in his crap-tastic 2008 campaign, the worst year of his career. Think about that… The average of EVERY BATTER Kershaw faced in this decade is EXACTLY the same as Slappy's most crap-tastic season. Seriously!? That’s ridonkulous. Remember that guys like Pujols, Howard, Fielder, Bruan, Holliday, A-Gon, Hanley Ramirez, etc were contributing to that number. Kershaw isn't just going to be great. he already is. all the peripherals are there, the wins will come.
If anything this really highlights the fact that we've really had very few lefties this decade, especially at the top of the rotation. Perez was definitely above average in his time with the dodgers, but there really isn't a lot of competition here. I guess if you are basing your selections on Wins only, or who spent longer on the team this decade you could pick Perez, but if you look at the whole big picture, Kershaw was just flat out better than Perez in 90% of statistical categories.
Comment by Bryan— January 4, 2010 #
K/9 and BB/9 got screwed up above for some reason…
6.2 K/9 4.6 BB/9
Comment by Bryan— January 4, 2010 #
guess it doesn’t like the symbols…
6.2 K/9 – 9.2 K/9
2.0 BB/9 – 4.6 BB/9
Comment by Bryan— January 4, 2010 #
I agree with all of this, and there’s no question Kershaw is BETTER than Odie. I’m just wondering if a guy with just barely over a year’s worth of service time, who was 12 years old when the decade started, can really qualify as the lefty of the entire decade. Not saying he can’t, but it’s a question worth asking.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— January 4, 2010 #
Righty starter competition is going to be really close. So many candidates and angles.
Brown
Nomo
Lowe
Penney
Billingsley
I have no idea who I will vote for, even after MSTI breaks it down, I figure it will be hard. closer figure to be close as well.
Comment by Table— January 4, 2010 #
Don’t forget Brett Tomko!! eeesh…
Comment by Higgins— January 4, 2010 #
Don’t worry, you won’t be subjected to Tomko.
Table, you’re missing a few!
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— January 4, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: Right-Handed Starter « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 5, 2010 #
Kind of embarrasing being associated with pinheads that vote Kershaw best of the decade. As much as I like him, lets get real and look at more than 13 wins out of 51 starts. Oh, maybe this American Idol, not anything that needs intelligence.
Comment by Tim Prest— January 5, 2010 #
Dude, calm down. This voting has no impact on anything in your life.
Comment by Chris— January 6, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: Left-Handed Reliever « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 6, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown (42%) LH reliever: Hong-Chih Kuo [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: Right-Handed Reliever « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 7, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown (42%) LH reliever: Hong-Chih Kuo (57%) RH reliever: Paul Quantrill [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: Closer « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 8, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown (42%) LH reliever: Hong-Chih Kuo (57%) RH reliever: Paul Quantrill [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: General Manager « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 11, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown (42%) LH reliever: Hong-Chih Kuo (57%) RH reliever: Paul Quantrill [...]
Pingback by Dodgers of the Decade: Manager « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 13, 2010 #
[...] Rafael Furcal (87%) LF: Gary Sheffield (62%) CF: Matt Kemp (94%) RF: Shawn Green (79%) LH starter: Clayton Kershaw (56%) RH starter: Kevin Brown (42%) LH reliever: Hong-Chih Kuo (57%) RH reliever: Paul Quantrill [...]
Pingback by Your Dodgers of the Decade Team « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness— January 14, 2010 #