Clayton Kershaw declared Dodgers’ best No. 1 pick

MLB.com posted the other day the best No. 1 pick made by every team. There were some quality names on the list, and some surprising ones left off. By the title of this article, you already know who they declared the best first-rounder made by the Dodgers. Unfortunately, I can’t give you some time to try and guess who it was.

Oh well.

It was Clayton Kershaw! Surprise surprise.

Kershaw was drafted with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2006 draft. Shoutout to the Royals, Rockies, Rays, Pirates, Mariners and Tigers for not selecting him! He was widely regarded as the best high school pitcher available, and it’s safe to say that he’s lived up to the hype, even surpassing it.

Per Ken Gurnick, scouting director Logan White was also considering drafting Bryan Morris and Tyler Colvin. Ultimately, what led to the Dodgers drafting Kershaw was area scout Calvin Jones telling Tommy Lasorda that after playing with or against Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux, Kershaw had the “best arm he’d ever seen”.

From the article:

At the time of the Draft, White compared Kershaw to Dave Righetti. Kershaw said he patterned himself after Johan Santana. One of the reasons Kershaw was still available to the Dodgers was that Luke Hochever re-entered the Draft after failing to sign with the Dodgers the previous year. Hochever was taken first overall by Kansas City in 2006.

Links

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• Whenever Major League Baseball returns this season, at least half of all game broadcasts will be done remotely. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports MLB has informed announcers (both TV and radio) that they will not travel this season, and will instead broadcast road games remotely.
• Major League Baseball officials are “inclined to allow local and municipal governance to take precedence” in deciding whether to allow fans to attend games during the upcoming 2020 season, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News based on anonymous league sources.
• MLB could allow fans at Astros, Rangers games in 2020 due to policy from Texas governor, per report