Betting Against Clayton Kershaw

With the start of the 2017 Major League Baseball season just a few days away, we’ll look at a few of the “wise guy” wagers over the next few days. The sharps tend to go against public opinion quite a bit. When the odds were released for individual pitcher wins, many felt Clayton Kershaw over 16.5 wins was a great bet. It isn’t, and this is from somebody who has been a Dodgers fan his entire life.

Yes, the number seems a bit low at first glance, but Kershaw has won more than 16 games just twice in his career. In 2011, he was 21-5. In 2014, he was 21-3. Every other season has seen him win 16 or fewer games. If he misses any extended period of time, as he did last year, your bet is pretty much done for. Clayton Kershaw isn’t getting any younger and the 1,760 innings he’s pitched in his big league career may begin to take a toll. The problem with being a strikeout pitcher is that you usually throw more pitchers per inning than a pitcher who induces ground balls.

The Dodgers are a good, but probably not a great team. (The Dodgers under 94.5 wins is another wise guy bet.) Their bullpen is a bit questionable after Kenley Jansen and have to believe there will be a few times Kershaw leaves with leads in the seventh inning and the relief pitchers let him down.

Offensively, the Dodgers will be above average, but certainly nothing to get excited about. They have some good bats in their line-up. But they lack the one true big bat that can carry a team for extended periods. While several of the offseason additions may help, they are all in the average to above average category.

The Kershaw bet, or the Dodgers team total wager for that matter, aren’t carried by all sportsbooks. One who does carry both, and plenty of others is BetOnline.