Which star is the better pitcher, Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer?
Last week, Max Scherzer won his second National League Cy Young Award and his third Cy Young award overall. This was the second year in a row Scherzer was named the top pitcher in the National League, and in the process, he became the tenth pitcher in baseball history to win the Cy Young Award three times. Another pitcher on that list, Clayton Kershaw, finished second in this year’s voting; however, the vote was not nearly as close as anticipated, with Scherzer receiving 27 out of 30 possible first-place votes for a total of 201.0 points, while Kershaw only received three first-place votes for a distant second at 126 points. While Scherzer had a considerable lead in WAR over Kershaw this season at 7.3 to 4.6, Kershaw led the NL with 18 wins and a 2.31 ERA, which led many to predict a tight Cy Young vote despite Scherzer’s 25 inning advantage over Kershaw, and his league-leading 268 strikeouts, and 0.902 WHIP.
Both Scherzer and Kershaw have been fighting for the title of best pitcher in baseball over the past few seasons, and now, ten years into each of their big league careers (both debuted in 2008) have three Cy Young Awards to their credit. This begs the question; which pitcher, Scherzer or Kershaw, has had the better big league career thus far? Let’s break it down by looking at each pitcher’s career totals thus far across a variety of traditional, and sabermetric stats.
G: Scherzer 305, Kershaw 292
GS: Scherzer 296, Kershaw 290
IP: Kershaw 1935.0, Scherzer 1897.0
W: Kershaw 144, Scherzer 141
L: Kershaw 64, Scherzer 75
W-L%: Kershaw .692, Scherzer .653
CG: Kershaw 25, Scherzer 8
SHO: Kershaw 15, Scherzer 4
K: Scherzer 2149, Kershaw 2120
ERA: Kershaw 2.36, Scherzer 3.30
WHIP: Kershaw 1.002, Scherzer 1.119
FIP: Kershaw 2.60, Scherzer 3.25
ERA+ Kershaw 161, Scherzer 127
Batters Faced: Scherzer 7719, Kershaw 7602
H/9: Kershaw 6.7, Scherzer 7.5
HR/9: Kershaw 0.6, Scherzer 1.0
BB/9: Kershaw 2.4, Scherzer 2.5
K/9: Scherzer 10.2, Kershaw 9.9
K/BB: Kershaw 4.18, Scherzer 4.02
WAR: Kershaw 59.4, Scherzer 45.6
All-Star Appearances: Kershaw 7, Scherzer 5
MVP Awards: Kershaw 1, Scherzer 0
Looking at the list above, the two main categories that Scherzer has Kershaw beat in are games and strikeouts. However, the gap between the two pitchers is minuscule in each category, as Scherzer only has thirteen more games pitched, and 29 strikeouts more than Kershaw. In contrast, the categories that Kershaw has the edge in, he often has the edge by a large margin. Kershaw has thrown 17 more complete games than Scherzer, has 11 more shutouts, an ERA over a full run lower, a WHIP .17 lower, and has allowed fewer walks, hits, and home runs per nine innings in his career than Scherzer. Additionally, Kershaw’s career has been worth 13.8 WAR more than Scherzer’s, and his ERA+ is 34 points higher. Even if you are into traditional awards, Kershaw has two more all-star appearances than Scherzer, and perhaps most importantly, the MVP Award that Scherzer has yet to obtain in either the AL or the NL. Yes, Max Scherzer may have taken home the Cy Young hardware in the NL the past two seasons, but if there was any doubt who the best pitcher in baseball is today, there is no question that Clayton Kershaw is still the man.
