One of the great things about baseball is it's history. You can compare players from the past and the present until the end of time and probably never come up with a definitive answer. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, Pete Rose and Ty Cobb, Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan, and the list goes on and on.
You most often hear Clayton Kershaw compared to Sandy Koufax in Dodger history. What I would like to do is compare the season Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves had in 1995 (a 19-2 record with a 1.63 ERA). Kershaw is currently at 17-3 with a 1.70 ERA after getting the win last night with 8 innings of one run baseball versus the Washington Nationals. Maddux was a control pitcher and Kershaw is a power pitcher, notching his 200th strikeout last night, his 5th straight season of 200 strikeouts.
The thing I remember the most about Maddux's season was how generous the umpires were when it came to Maddux's strike zone. He could have thrown the ball into the third base dugout and the umpire would have called it a strike. The umpires generosity eventually led to a more stringent strike zone a couple of seasons later. Kershaw has just been dominant. He gave up his first homerun to a left handed batter last night when Bryce Harper of the Nationals hit a solo homerun. To this point I believe that Kershaw's season has been more dominant than Maddux's 1995 season. I can only imagine the season that Kershaw would be having with a Maddux style strike zone.
Update: Kershaw finished the season with a 21-3 record and a 1.77 ERA. He also won the National League's Cy Young Award as well as the Most Valuable Player Award. Maddux won the Cy Young Award in 1995 but finished in 3rd place in the MVP race in 1995.
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