Yeah but still, Kershaw’s career postseason ERA is almost double his career regular season ERA. It’s baffling how incredibly dominating he can be during the regular season, and then how normal flawed human he is in October.
The Dodgers may not have a chance to trade Kershaw if he opts out of his contract to test free agency. It will be interesting to see how that works out for him should he go that route. He was amazing in 2018, but not as amazing as the previous 8 years. He’ll be 31 for the 2019 season. Back issues have had some impact on his number of innings in the last few years. Fact is, he is past his prime, even though he’s still obviously great.
It does seem strange to rank Boston behind the three teams they beat in the postseason; three teams they outperformed in the won-loss column.
An ESPN writer could make a case for Houston being number 1 in their ‘power rankings.’ According to whatever formula they use for Expected Win-Loss, Houston should have won 112 games and Boston 105.
That includes the great majority of pundits on major sports sites who kept picking Red Sox postseason opponents to win, repeatedly citing their supposedly superior bullpens. Something like 5 of 6 ESPN “experts” favored the Dodgers, for example.
They’re very unlikely to repeat though. Winning teams lose a bit of an edge, and there’s excellent competition in the AL alone.
Note that asahi said “last 5-10 years”.
Boston fans, forever with the complex. The ESPN “experts” picked Boston to win the WS by a convincing 20 to 5 vote.
I’m surprised the Dodgers even got 5.
Yup.
Personally, I was much more concerned about the Astros and Yankees than I was about the Dodgers. It’s hard to explain why, but LA’s lineup didn’t scare me much at all outside of Machado (who ended up not doing much). And in the respective closeout games, I was more afraid of Verlander than Kershaw.
I don’t think he should or will. You sign big-money FA’s to win the World Series, and Kershaw didn’t show himself to be a dominant October performer. I don’t see him making as much elsewhere as he would with LA. But he may be just one of those guys who wilts under the spotlight in a high-pressure major market, but would be fine in, say, Milwaukee.
LOL. This is funny.
Way to go, Bostonians.
Apparently, Boston fans were too drunk to realize that throwing liquids is one thing (still douchebaggery but not likely to cause injury); throwing cans full of liquids is quite another. They damaged the WS trophy to boot.
Given that most of our resident MLB fans are in this thread:
Willie McCovey: Giants legend dead at 80
Yes, a sad day around these parts. R.I.P., Willie Mac, and thank you.
Throwing cans of beer to the players started a few years ago, with the Super Bowl 49 duck boat parade. Predictably, it was Gronk who started things. It was all in fun - giving beers to the players on the boats. Unfortunately, this year some fans neglected the common sense lesson that the correct way to throw a beer can is a gentle underhand toss to someone who knows the beer is coming, not an overhand throw to someone looking the other way.
Yeah, unfortunately this was stupid but not malicious.
It looks like we might have a mascot and a tagline for Boston-area sports fans! 
Fits with the whole “Do Damage” postseason motto.
Not a soft underhand toss to someone who’s looking (and wanting a beer), but an overhand throw to an unsuspecting player or coach? How stupid can those fans be?
So he’s one of those regular season dominance pitchers who clearly will never be good in the post-season, like say David Price?