Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Kershaw

He's only 20 years old, but his arrival in the MLB has been highly anticipated since he was drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft. His name is Clayton Kershaw, and he is a 6'3" southpaw from Dallas.

With the Dodgers in need of a fifth starter, they purchased the contract of Kershaw for him to start on Sunday against the Cardinals. He was impressive in his debut, going six innings and only allowing two runs on five hits. He also struck out seven.

Kershaw has some filthy stuff. He features a 95-97 mph fastball, and a nasty curveball at about 72-75 mph. He kept the Cards mostly off balance, though he labored through the first inning, throwing 32 pitches in the opening frame. But he kept the Dodgers in the game, and for the meantime, Kershaw may have installed himself into the Dodgers' rotation. Let's hope manager Joe Torre will be more lenient on the rookies than he was as the Yankees skipper.


IN OTHER NEWS:

• The amount of players landing on the DL is astonishing. Just looking at this past week, we see a tremendous amount of injuries taking place.
• 5/19 - Ronnie Belliard goes on the 15-day DL with a strained left calf.
• 5/19 - Chad Fox goes on the 15-day DL with ulnar neuritis.
  
• 5/19 - Donnie Murphy goes on the 15-day DL with right elbow inflammation.
  
• 5/20 - Jake Peavy goes on the 15-day DL with a strained right elbow.
• 5/20 - Andrew Brown goes on the 15-day DL after undergoing an appendectomy.
• 5/20 - Gary Bennett goes on the 15-day DL with plantar fascitits in his left foot.
  
• 5/21 - Erik Aybar goes on the 15-day DL with a dislocated finger.
• 5/22 - Austin Kearns goes on the 15-day DL after undergoing elbow surgery to remove bone chips.
• 5/23 - (pitcher) Chris Young goes on the 15-day DL with a fractured nose.
• 5/23 - Josh Bard goes on the 15-day DL with an ankle injury.
• 5/23 - Moises Alou goes (back) on the 15-day DL with a strained left calf.
• 5/23 - Adam Everett goes on the 15-day DL with a strained right elbow.
• 5/23 - Juan Uribe goes on the 15-day DL with a strained left hamstring.
• 5/24 - Eric Gagne goes on the 15-day DL with right rotator cuff tendinitis.
• 5/24 - Jayson Werth goes on the 15-day DL with a strained right oblique.
• 5/24 - Brad Hawpe goes on the 15-day DL with a strained right hamstring.
• 5/24 - Clint Barmes goes on the 15-day DL with a sprained right knee.
• 5/24 - Brett Caroll goes on the 15-day DL with a separated right shoulder.
  
• 5/24 - Marlon Anderson goes on the 15-day DL with strained left hamstring.
• 5/25 - Fausto Carmona goes on the 15-day DL with a strained left hip.
  
• 5/25 - Andruw Jones goes on the 15-day DL with an injured right knee.
• 5/25 - Matt Holliday goes on the 15-day DL with a strained left hamstring.
• Anderson, Hawpe, Holliday, and Barmes all left from the same Mets/Rockies series.
  
• On Friday night, when the game went 13 innings, Anderson left after attempting to beat out a ground ball in the 4th inning. Barmes, one of the Rockies' hottest hitters who had replaced injured shortstop Troy Tulowitski, left in the top of the 10th inning. Jose Reyes hit a bloop double, and took out Barmes on the slide into second base.
• On Saturday, Holliday, who hit the game-tying and game-winning hits Friday night, strained his hammy running to first on a groundout to third.
• Though Hawpe didn't actually get hurt during this series, he was placed on the DL on Saturday.
  
• This series saw more injuries, not resulting in a DL stint (yet).
  
• Rockies center fielder Willy Taveras bruised his knee when he crashed into the wall Friday night in the sixth inning.
• Garrett Atkins missed the last two games of the series with a stiff neck.
• Ryan Church, who suffered a concussion in the previous series in Atlanta, has yet to start a game since enduring the injury. He has appeared as a pinch-hitter, but still feels "funny".