Kershaw's playoff struggles always amuse me and make me think of a thing that I haven't really seen crystallized by someone yet. Though his overall numbers historically aren't actually terrible despite his reputation, he's just wildly unclutch)
Much has been made of modern pitching, how quickly they get pulled and are protected by their teams (often to no avail still, they still get injured all the damn time and there's no evidence all this coddling them, since the Nat's handling of Strausberg made it trendy, actually does a damn thing to protect them anyway.
But they just aren't scary anymore. They all generally throw harder, have more movement, than ever. But no one fears a pitcher anymore. Kershaw is a creampuff. But so is the whole generation of pitchers. I don't mean this in a Don Cherry back in my day sort of way, this wasn't even that long ago.
The elites of the prior era, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Maddux, Rivera. Even some of the next tier down types like Sabbathia, Santana, Zito, Smotlz, Glavine, Hudson, Mussina.
You legitimately didn't want to play against these guys. Even the non power pitchers. Because you were going to have a bad day in all likelihood.
In theory there's that same likelihood now. Against an elite pitcher of today. But it just doesn't have the same impact or feeling. It's just another day. I never felt angst that the Diamondbacks were facing a Kershaw, when I was following. But a Clemens or a Maddux? Oh yeah that was appointment viewing. Was Clemens going to bully hitters off the plate all night. If you didn't beat Maddux in the 1st inning you weren't going to. A guy like Kershaw or Verlander is almost as elite as those guys in an all time sense, yet they are just so.....ordinary. And another reason baseball is tough for me to follow now.
/randommusings