Clayton Kershaw Dominance Reminds Me of.....
Clayton Kershaw has been utterly dominant over the course of his young career. At age 29, the nifty southpaw already has 3 CY Young Awards to his name. Since 2013, his season ERA has only been above 2.00 in a single season. There is no other pitcher in baseball who is on, or even near his level. But has there EVER been a pitcher as dominant?
When pitchers are categorized as "dominant" or "un-hittable" fans often tend to think of flamethrowers. The Aroldis Chapmans of the world or the Joel Zumayas. Kershaw is not that. His fastball tends to peak around 93/94MPH. Reflecting on pitchers over the course of recent history, I came across Greg Maddux. Maddux was by no means a flamethrower, but rather a technician out on the mound. He relied on deceiving hitters with location and change of speed rather than trying to overpowering them. From 1992-1995 (4 seasons) Maddux won the CY Young Award every year. That is incredible! Also, another interesting tidbit I found out about Greg Maddux is that he won the Gold Glove 18 times. 18! Insane!
While Kershaw is making professional hitters look like fools at times, his reign is not unprecedented. Just look at Greg Maddux: he pitched for almost 22 seasons piling up 355 career wins. Kershaw has another decade ahead of him before we put him on the same sacred ground as Maddux, but he is undoubtedly on his way.
