<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MOBILE, Ala. – The theme of the day is worship, and the chaplain at the front of the room hopes the six young men sitting in front of him understand its importance. “We need to worship,” Bobby Butler says in his shrimp-and-grits voice. “We want to worship. I want to worship.” One of the men is Clayton Kershaw, and the lesson rings familiar. He is a believer. He is also believed in. It’s not that people worship Kershaw, exactly. It’s just that he is a 20-year-old left-handed pitcher playing at Double-A Jacksonville in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization with a fastball that crackles at 97 mph and a curveball that, hyperbole aside, is probably the best in the world, and for those reasons, people worship the idea of him: of limitless potential, of youth unshackled, of the unknown and unseen.“Let’s have a word of prayer,” Butler says. Seven heads bow. It’s Sunday, and 24 hours from now, Kershaw will make one of the most important starts of his career, against the Mobile BayBears. If he pitches well, the Dodgers will consider calling him up to the major leagues and making him the youngest pitcher to debut since Felix Hernandez in 2005 and the third youngest this decade. Kershaw closes his eyes and listens as the smoke detector in this spare room at Hank Aaron Stadium, in need of a new battery, provides the melody for Butler’s final thoughts. “So Lord.” Beep “Look over these boys in their travel.” Beep “And always remember.” Beep “It’s OK to worship.” There is the great prospect, and there is the great prospect. The two are entirely different beasts. Great prospects excite fans. Great ones turn them rabid, hungry for information, minutiae, minor-league box scores. Scouts one up each other with plaudits, as though they’re critics trying to get quotes on movie posters. Executives blanch, proud the kid is in their organization, wary of creating excessive expectations, trying to toe the middle and almost always failing to do so. Clayton Kershaw is a great prospect. On March 9, the world found out why. In the press box at Vero Beach, Fla., sat Vin Scully, the Hall of Fame announcer who, at 80, still turns phrases and gilds them with his mellifluous voice. On the field stood Kershaw, 19 at the time, in his second spring training appearance with the Dodgers. He had retired the first two Boston batters when up stepped Sean Casey, a lifetime .300 hitter and a difficult mark for strikeout pitchers. Kershaw worked the count to two strikes before he unfurled one of those curveballs.Casey had never seen a pitch like it. His knees jellied. The ball moved like a magic bullet, starting behind him, ending up flush in the strike zone. Scully, who has been broadcasting for 59 years, at first offered nothing more than a guttural noise of incredulity before bestowing a nickname that should stick. “Holy mackerel,” Scully said. “He just broke off Public Enemy No. 1.” The legend of Kershaw’s curveball spread around Dodgertown that day, each tale a little more exaggerated than the previous. Witnesses told stories to those who missed it, and from thereon, everybody made sure that the next time Kershaw was scheduled to pitch their work for the day was done. For the rest of the spring, they saw near perfection. Kershaw threw 14 consecutive scoreless innings, struck out 19 and, as Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti says, “looked like he could pitch opening day.” All of the Dodgers’ work scouting Kershaw had borne an orchid. They knew of him long before the mercy-ruled perfect game in high school when he struck out all 15 hitters, and they chose him with the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft out of Highland Park, Texas, and gave him $2.3 million. “We hoped we got Sandy Koufax, because when you’re out there drafting, you’re praying,” says Logan White, a Dodgers assistant general manager and then-scouting director. “You hope for a Sandy Koufax or Nolan Ryan. Whether Clayton will sniff an element of Sandy, there’s a lot of years.” Two days after Public Enemy No. 1 arrived, Koufax visited Dodgers camp. He watched Kershaw throw a bullpen session and offered a few tips. And then the best left-handed pitcher ever, the one who created hysteria before it was de rigueur, told Kershaw to stay healthy, because the way he threw the ball, there was no way the Dodgers could keep him in the minor leagues much longer. The decision is never easy. Bring him up. No, keep him down. But he can help the Dodgers win now. You don’t want to ruin him by rushing him. It’s defeatist to think like that. Well, it’s na�ve to think otherwise. “We have to be fair to the player and fair to the organization,” Colletti says. Devil’s advocacy was prevalent this week at Dodger Stadium. With Esteban Loaiza on the disabled list, the Dodgers need a starter for Saturday, and Kershaw, with a 1.08 earned-run average in his first six starts, makes sense. He’s better than Chan Ho Park, and Hong-Chih Kuo has been so good out of the bullpen, why mess with that? Six days before that open rotation spot gets filled, Kershaw is watching an NBA playoff game. He knows the Dodgers might summon him, that they’re sending Bill Lajoie, Colletti’s top advisor, to his next start, and that they want him to throw more changeups. “If you start hearing all the injury reports and listening to the rumors, it’s going to drive you crazy,” Kershaw says. “What will ultimately dictate when I get up there is how well I pitch here. I’m trying to take care of that right now. I’ve got a start, and we’ll see how it goes. If it happens, great. If not, I’ll keep going.”</div> read more what a ****ing great article!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Dodgers phenom left-hander Clayton Kershaw had the kind of start for Double-A Jacksonville Thursday night that will only fuel speculation he's about to become a Major Leaguer. Kershaw faced three Carolina Mud Cats, struck out two, then was yanked by manager John Shoemaker, completely healthy. By starting Thursday night, Kershaw is on schedule to start again Tuesday, which happens to be the next time the Dodgers need a fifth starter. Beginning with Tuesday's game in Chicago, the Dodgers will need a fifth starter on almost a traditional five-day rotation through the All-Star break. The last time the spot came up Saturday in Anaheim, manager Joe Torre went with a tag-team of Chan Ho Park for four innings (one earned run), followed by Hong-Chih Kuo for four scoreless innings in a 6-3 win. Kershaw, a first-round pick in 2006, jumped onto the Major League radar during a stunning Spring Training. Brought over from Minor League camp March 9, Kershaw allowed a home run to the first batter he faced in an exhibition game and didn't allow another run in 14 innings, striking out 19 with three walks. But management sent Kershaw back to Double-A Jacksonville anyway, with a mandate that he pitch no more than 25 innings a month to ration his arm for a possible pennant-stretch role in Los Angeles.</div> Tuesday, the game will be shown on ESPN! So watch out for him! Maybe... MLB.com
