Clayton
Kershaw's Greatness
You are probably aware of the many accomplishments of Clayton Kershaw’s remarkable career, such as the MVP award, three Cy Young awards, and 11 All-Star game appearances. But one statistical feat you're probably not aware of is that Kershaw has the highest tBS+ in the tBS Starters Career Report. That is best among the 912 starting pitchers who qualify for the report (min 150 starts) going back to 1911.
tBS+ is a normalized stat that takes a pitcher’s career tBS (total Bases Surrendered), adjusts for park factor, divides by the innings pitched, and compares that to the league average over the course of the pitcher’s career. Kershaw’s career tBS+ is 144.33. This meaans that Kershaw was 44% better than other starting pitchers over the course of his lengthy career.
Kershaw also has the lowest tBSIp (total Bases Surrendered per Innings Pitched--adjusted for park factor) in that same report. Amazing.
Kershaw dealt with numerous injuries in the 2nd half of his career, so he doesn’t have the IP and win totals that many HOFers have, but he deserves to get in on the 1st ballot nonetheless.
We witnessed greatness in Kershaw.