In 2014, Dodgers uber-ace Clayton Kershaw dominated his loop to the extent not seen since Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson visited their predations upon major-league hitters. That is to say, Kershaw was utterly brilliant in the 2014 regular season, and his winning the NL Cy Young was unavoidable in the extreme.
To give you, the leisured page-viewer, a better idea of Kershaw's might, let's take a quick walking tour of 44 categories in which Kershaw in 2014 led all starting pitchers -- as in all of them, not just his National League label-mates. These categories will range from the traditional to the offputting to vaguely meaningless to the redundant-at-first-blush to the oddly granular, but anything that's likely to be unfamiliar shall contain a link to an explanation. This is for the people, you see.
So why 44 things? Because I ran out of time after getting to 44. There might be more, is what I'm saying. Clayton Kershaw is the Russian nesting doll of pitching excellence, provided said Russian nesting doll lives in an Escher painting. Something like that.
And now let the bandwidth wash over you with the following 44 categories in which Clayton Kershaw led all starting pitchers in 2014 ...
1. ERA
2. Complete games
3. ERA+
4. FIP
5. xFIP
6. WHIP
7. Runs-based WAR
8. OBP against
9. SLG against
10. WPA
11. Base-Out Wins Saved
12. Situational Runs
13. Team W-L percentage in games started
14. Quality start percentage
15. Average Game Score
16. Best single-game Game Score
17. Innings/start
18. Strikeout percentage
19. Strikeout percentage minus walk percentage
20. SIERA
21. ERA-
22. FIP-
23. xFIP-
24. Pitch value, slider
25. Pitch value, fastball
26. Swinging strike percentage
27. Inches of vertical movement, changeup
28. 162 W-L percentage (hover over "162WL%" for definition)
29. xRA
30. xRA+
31. Percentage of at-bats that ended in strikeout, pop-up or GIDP
32. Percentage of strikeouts on pitches outside the strike zone
33. Strikeout percentage, LHPs vs. RHBs
34. FIP in road games
35. xFIP in road games
36. Strikeout percentage in road games
37. Strikeout percentage minus walk percentage in road games
38. Home run rate in road games
39. ERA in June
40. OBP allowed vs. RHBs
41. Strikeouts, LHP vs. RHBs, after being behind in the count
42. Strikeout percentage by LHP after being behind in the count
43. W-L percentage
44. Wins
I counted again, and that's 44 things -- 44 things in which Clayton Kershaw led all starting pitchers in 2014.
These 44 things would not have been possible without Clayton Kershaw. Making note of these 44 things would not have been possible without the Internet dynamos known as Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs, StatCorner and Baseball Savant.
Executive summary: Mr. Kershaw is good at throwing cowhide orbs.
