Bit of a stretch to call Clayton Kershaw greatest ever MLB pitcher

The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher is enjoying a superb year on the mound, but supporters and pundits eager to compare him to the greats of all time should just enjoy what he is doing, writes Gregg Patton.

Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers delivers a pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field on earlier this week. Elsa / Getty Images

There is little argument that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of his generation.

One way to tell is that the sport’s statistical wizards are already on their calculators seeing where he ranks among the greatest of all time.

Some analysts are burning through microchips, projecting to the end of his career, almost ready to grant him the top spot in history, should he stay relatively true to his current form for, say, another seven or eight years.

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As the Washington Post put it, we need to "see just how the rest of Kershaw's career shakes out before anointing him the greatest pitcher of all time. However, he is certainly on that path".

Another way of saying it is, Kershaw, 28, sure has a lot of his own really exceptional pitching to match if he wants to be Greatest Ever.

Instead of getting so far ahead of ourselves, maybe the best thing to do is just sit back and enjoy the moment. The Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander has never been better than now.

His latest “wow” came in his last start. Kershaw became the first pitcher this season to reach 100 strikeouts. What made it remarkable was that the he has allowed only five walks.

No one had ever been so unhittable, and so accurate at the same time.

The best before him, Cliff Lee, made it to 100 strikeouts while giving up seven walks in 2010. Lee did not get there until mid-July.

Kershaw is capable of some kind of “first” every time he pitches. Earlier this year, he became the first to strike out at least 10 batters in six consecutive starts, while walking one or fewer.

How dominating is Kershaw’s 21-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio? In 2014, Phil Hughes of the Minnesota Twins set a record with an 11.63-to-1 ratio over the course of a whole season.

AJ Ellis, the man who usually catches Kershaw, told ESPN.com, “It speaks to his commitment to be aggressive in the strike zone. It speaks to his ability to put guys away. It shows who he is as a competitor.”

His competitive nature has been apparent since he debuted in 2008, sporting a fastball, slider and curve that he was not afraid to use in any situation.

Kershaw’s fastball, mile-per-hour speed, usually sits in the low 90s, his slider in the mid 80s and his top-to-bottom curve in the mid 70s. What makes each pitch hard to hit is the sameness of the delivery. The lefty hides the ball during his wind-up better than most, and releases it from the same spot each time.

And, of course, his control is nearly impeccable with each.

Through two months, no one had pitched more innings, complete games and shutouts (three). He led the league in strikeouts, walks-and-hits per innings pitched (WHIP) and earned run average (1.56).

Basically, a fairly typical Kershaw season. He remains the only pitcher to ever lead the majors in ERA four consecutive years (2011-14).

He has three Cy Young Awards, one Most Valuable Player and when he struck out more than 300 hitters in 2015, he was the first to do so in 13 years.

Oh yeah, he also has the lowest career ERA (2.40) of any starting pitcher with more than 1,500 innings pitched over the last century. Yes, last century.

It may be a temptation to run all of the head-shaking data through an analytics programme. But why not just enjoy the show?

As rival pitcher Adam Wainwright of the St Louis Cardinals told USA Today, "I don't think we've seen anything like this before."

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