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Kershaw Is MLB’s Only Hope to Have a 20 Game Winning Pitcher this Season
- Updated: September 18, 2017
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With the end of the 2017 MLB regular season close to an end, it’s time to take a look at the season and review some of the interesting stats and try to guess where things will end up when the season finishes. While this won’t affect the betting odds of the baseball game, it does shed a light on some stats that you might not have noticed.
One of the stats we found most interesting is the fact that we might not have a 20 game winning pitcher this season. What makes this so interesting is the fact that there are so many good pitchers today that there should be multiple 20 game winning pitchers, but for some reason, there likely won’t be any this year.
As of right now, there are three pitchers that will get close to the 20 win mark, two of them won’t reach it, but the third still has a chance as long as he can win his remaining starts of the season.
Cleveland’s Corey Kluber won his 17th game of the season on Sunday, and with the way the Indians are playing right now, would have won 20 games if he had a little more time.
Kluber has two more scheduled starts this season, if he wins both, the most he will have is 19 wins at the end of the season.
Zack Greinke and Zach Davies also have 17 wins on the season but only two more scheduled starts left. Like Kluber, these pitchers would likely have hit the 20 game mark if there was a little more time left in the season.
Just like the three pitchers listed above, none of the pitchers with 16 wins are going to have enough starts to make an attempt for 20 wins.
Of all the pitchers in baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw is the only pitcher that has a chance at winning 20 games this season.
Kershaw missed six weeks with an injury, but still leads the league in wins, showing just how dominant he has been this season. With a scheduled start on Mon day, Kershaw will still have two starts before the season ends, meaning he is the only person that can prevent this year from being the first since 2009 without a 20 game winner.
The only problem is Kershaw might not get to play his last two scheduled starts. With the Dodgers already wrapping up the NL West, the Dodgers might want to rest Kershaw as they get ready for their postseason run.
Kershaw has been a workhorse for the Dodgers for years, with the team sometimes starting him multiple times during a playoff series, so it makes sense that they might want to rest him as much as possible while they still can.
If Kershaw is allowed to pitch in his remaining scheduled starts, he has a good chance of getting 20 wins, but the 20th might be hard to come by because they are scheduled to play the Colorado Rockies in their final regular season game, and the Rockies are still fighting with the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals for the final Wildcard playoff spot.
If Kershaw can’t get to 20 wins, this will be the first season since 2009 without a 20 game winner, and the fifth such time in MLB history.