Weaver: It'd be fun to have Kershaw's s---
Jered Weaver, the Los Angeles Angels' veteran right-hander, was one of Clayton Kershaw's many strikeout victims Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, where the three-time Cy Young Award winner lowered his ERA to 1.67 and raised his strikeout-to-walk ratio to an unfathomable 22:1 in his club's 6-1 victory over its intercity rivals.
Frankly, after watching Kershaw navigate eight sublime innings en route to his sixth straight start with double-digit strikeouts, the soft-tossing 33-year-old sounded a little envious of the Dodgers' decorated left-hander.
"It would be fun to go out there with his shit, that's for sure," Weaver told reporters after suffering his third loss in his last four outings.
Plagued by a considerable decline in velocity over the past few seasons, Weaver admitted that his, ahem, stuff, isn't close to Kershaw-esque.
"It's no secret," Weaver said. "My stuff isn't that great."
While no pitcher on this planet compares favorably to Kershaw - who's allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of nine starts in 2016 - attempting to draw any parallels between Weaver and the former MVP is like trying to compare The Beatles with the Backstreet Boys: It just can't be done.
Kershaw vs. Weaver, 2016 Swing Metrics
| Name | K% | SwStr% | Z-Contact% | O-Swing% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kershaw | 34.8% | 15.9% | 81.2% | 33.2% |
| MLB AVG (SP) | 20.3% | 9.4% | 86.7% | 27.6% |
| Weaver | 12.8% | 8.5% | 85.3% | 28.1% |
Truthfully, there might not be two more dissimilar pitchers in all of baseball than Kershaw and Weaver, in terms of both profile and results.
| Name | ERA (ERA-) | WHIP | Hard-Hit% | GB% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kershaw | 1.67 (43) | 0.70 | 30% | 49.7% |
| Weaver | 5.76 (148) | 1.61 | 36% | 30.7% |
Still, though Weaver doesn't have much in common with Kershaw, the three-time All-Star will keep battling even as he continues to deal with the neck problems that have bothered him since spring training.
"The last thing I'm going to do is quit on this team," Weaver said. "I'm going to keep going out there and battling, and that's my mentality. A lot of other people would shut it down, but that's not who I am. I'm on the right track."