18 – 3 as purty as it looks

Wins have gone out of style, but when your ace of aces is putting up a record of 18 – 3, you can’t help but wonder how he stacks up historically against some of the greatest winning percentages since the Dodgers moved West.  Clayton would need one more win to match Orel with the best winning percentage of any Los Angeles Dodgers ( maybe he can do that his weekend), but as it stands now, Clayton is tied with six other pitchers for the eleventh best winning percentage of any starter who has made at least 20 starts since 1958.

With eighteen wins in only twenty four starts, Kershaw is winning three out of every four games he starts. Win stats may not be the winning flower in the botanical competition anymore, but how can you not love that stat?

It does seem that every game Clayton starts he is making history.

Rk              Player W-L% GS Year Age Lg  W L    IP  SO  ERA  FIP ERA+
1          Greg Maddux .905 28 1995  29 NL 19 2 209.2 181 1.63 2.26  260
2        Randy Johnson .900 30 1995  31 AL 18 2 214.1 294 2.48 2.08  193
3           Ron Guidry .893 35 1978  27 AL 25 3 273.2 248 1.74 2.19  208
4            Cliff Lee .880 31 2008  29 AL 22 3 223.1 170 2.54 2.83  167
5         Max Scherzer .875 32 2013  28 AL 21 3 214.1 240 2.90 2.74  145
6           Tom Seaver .875 23 1981  36 NL 14 2 166.1  87 2.54 3.58  140
7        Roger Clemens .870 33 2001  38 AL 20 3 220.1 213 3.51 3.29  128
8           David Cone .870 28 1988  25 NL 20 3 231.1 213 2.22 2.58  145
9       Orel Hershiser .864 34 1985  26 NL 19 3 239.2 157 2.03 2.73  171
10         Whitey Ford .862 39 1961  32 AL 25 4 283.0 209 3.21 3.14  115
11     Clayton Kershaw .857 24 2014  26 NL 18 3 177.1 210 1.67 1.88  213
12   Daisuke Matsuzaka .857 29 2008  27 AL 18 3 167.2 154 2.90 4.03  160
13          Jason Bere .857 24 1994  23 AL 12 2 141.2 127 3.81 4.61  123
14       Roger Clemens .857 33 1986  23 AL 24 4 254.0 238 2.48 2.81  169
15       Dwight Gooden .857 35 1985  20 NL 24 4 276.2 268 1.53 2.13  229
16           Mike Nagy .857 28 1969  21 AL 12 2 196.2  84 3.11 4.10  124

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2014.

As for how Clayton stands against LA Dodger starters:

Rk            Player W-L% GS Year Age  Tm  W L    IP  ERA  FIP ERA+
1     Orel Hershiser .864 34 1985  26 LAD 19 3 239.2 2.03 2.73  171
2    Clayton Kershaw .857 24 2014  26 LAD 18 3 177.1 1.67 1.88  213
3       Sandy Koufax .833 40 1963  27 LAD 25 5 311.0 1.88 1.85  159
4         Tommy John .813 22 1974  31 LAD 13 3 153.0 2.59 2.74  132
5    Clayton Kershaw .808 33 2011  23 LAD 21 5 233.1 2.28 2.47  161
6         Brad Penny .800 33 2007  29 LAD 16 4 208.0 3.03 3.63  147
7        Rick Rhoden .800 26 1976  23 LAD 12 3 181.0 2.98 3.90  113

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2014.
The most recent season on that list that does not belong to Clayton belongs to Penny, and I’ll be honest, I simply don’t remember the hair as having that kind of record. I can remember seasons 20 – 40 years ago better than I can remember a season that happened just seven years ago.