Jered Weaver has signed a five-year, $85 million contract extension with the Angels, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com is reporting. Here’s a comparison between Weaver and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw.

   
  Weaver Kershaw
Throws Right Left
Age 28 yrs., 10 mo. 23 yrs., 5 mo.
Draft 12th overall 7th overall
Year signed 2005 2006
MLB Debut 5/27/06 5/25/08
Career starts 170 109
Career ERA 3.30 3.01
Career ERA+ 129 129
Career WHIP 1.17 1.20
Career K/9 7.8 9.4
2011 starts 26 26
2011 ERA 2.10 2.60
2011 ERA+ 178 143
2011 WHIP 0.97 1.01
2001 K/9 7.6 9.8
First-year arbitration eligibility $4.265 million in 2010, after 3.75 ERA in 2009 2012
Second-year arbitration eligibility $7.37 million in 2011, after 3.01 ERA in 2010 2013
Third-year arbitration eligible * 2014
Free agent eligibility November 2012* November 2014

*Weaver’s five-year extension, which runs through 2016 (when Weaver will turn 34), covers his final year of arbitration eligibility and his first four years after free-agent eligibility.

Kershaw is ahead of Weaver’s pace, meaning he’s going to be owed more money each step of the way if he keeps up his trend of performance. If Kershaw were to sign a contract extension at the same stage of his career as Weaver, that would come in August 2013.