MLB

Comparing Clayton Kershaw to the Best Pitchers in Baseball

The Texas native is the best of the best on the mound this year. And it's not close.

Clayton Kershaw continues his reign as the most dominant starter in the league after letting up one run over eight innings and striking out six against the Brewers. Through his 19 starts this year, he’s let up two or more runs only six times, with one of those outings not being a quality start (seven earned runs over 1.2 innings). There’s no question that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in the bigs this year, and has been since 2011 when he made his first All-Star game and won the NL Cy Young.

The Dodgers' ace is like a fine wine, with his numbers improving year by year. While his 2012 stats weren’t as good as 2011, his 2013 was one of the best seasons ever and this year has been even better.

Kershaw’s 2013 can only be compared to Pedro Martinez’s 2000 and Roger Clemens’s 2005 this century, and there’s no season as good after that until the 70’s. While he has Johnny Cueto on his heels for the NL Cy Young this year, Chris Sale wanting to be the lefty and Felix Hernandez is trying build his campaign as the ace of the MLB over his west coast rival, Kershaw is only getting better.

These three starters all have very impressive numbers, with a couple that are even better than Kershaw’s. But Kershaw is impressive on almost every front, and looking over these four starter’s stats, he has plenty of reason to be considered the best guy on the bump.