Dodgers notes: Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts, All-Star jerseys

After a busy Monday with All-Star Game lineups announced (and three Dodgers hitting consecutively), Mookie Betts eliminated in the first round of the Home Run Derby, and the Dodgers drafting 10 more players, let’s head into Tuesday’s All-Star Game with a few Dodgers- and baseball-related stories to read.

Several pitchers across baseball look to Clayton Kershaw for inspiration. Andy McCullough at The Athletic talked to a bunch of them, including Clay Holmes, who when with the Pirates had a chance meeting with Kershaw in the Dominican Republic several years ago.

Even though Kershaw is on the injured list, he made the trip with his family to Seattle for the All-Star Game, telling Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, “You don’t play a lot of games where the wins and losses don’t really matter. So just to be able to go out and kind of showcase everybody that’s so good in the game for the first half, is great for baseball and I think guys have fun with it.”

A few more Betts features dropped from Dodgers beat writers on Monday. Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about Betts’ hitting profile has changed over the years, and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times wrote about the efficiency of Betts’ swing.

Gavin Stone won Pacific Coast League pitcher of the week after striking out eight in six scoreless innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Stone is the sixth OKC player to win weekly honors this season, along with pitchers William Cuevas, Matt Andriese, and Mark Washington, plus catcher Hunter Feduccia and infielder Michael Busch.

Emma Baccelieri at Sports Illustrated laments that players don’t wear their team jerseys in the All-Star Game anymore:

It was an aesthetic reflection of the purpose of the game: Here were all these players representing their various teams in their various jerseys. It was an automatic visual signal that you were not watching an ordinary game. Sure, the uniforms could occasionally clash. But that was charming far more than it was grating. It was something different!

We’re headed for a large number of 100-loss teams in MLB again this year, which is bad for the league, writes Marc Normandin at his newsletter.

The story we’ve all been waiting for — Angels reliever Carlos Estévez met up with another famous Carlos Estévez, actor Charlie Sheen, chronicled by Steve Henson at the Los Angeles Times.