Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin could step to the front of the line if you want a first-hand review of just how good Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is.

Martin broke into the major leagues at age 23 in 2006 as a member of the Dodgers, and became a battery mate of Kershaw as the left-handed phenom began establishing himself as MLB’s best pitcher in the past seven years.

“What I noticed right away was that at a young age, just how mature he was, you just noticed it immediately,” Martin said of Kershaw, who will get the ball for the Dodgers on Saturday, the middle game of a three-game series in Toronto that opens Friday at the Rogers Centre.

“He was (20 years old) and it was one of my first big-league camps, and I think it was Sean Casey (now a commentator with MLB Network) who sees a 96 m.p.h. fastball, then a breaking ball, and he’s like saying, ‘Who is this kid, Sandy Koufax?’ ”

Since that scene in 2008, Kershaw has been what Koufax was to the Dodgers in his era, and more.

Right now, the talk regarding the finest performances in pitching centre on Kershaw and Cubs ace Jake Arrieta, who has a current run of 26 regular-season starts, dating back to a shutout of the Twins last June, in which he has a 0.85 ERA.

Arrieta certainly stands alone in the majors in most standard pitching stats. But as pointed out by Ryan Fagan in the Sporting News, Kershaw may even have out-performed Arietta in some instances over the same period of time.

Specifically, the FIP (Fielder Independent Pitching) for both pitchers over that stretch favours Kershaw. The advanced metric was designed to zero in on a pitcher’s ERA independent to the defence behind him, focusing strictly on what the pitcher can control; Kershaw leads the majors with a 1.76 FIP, Arietta is third at 2.20.

Kershaw also has a superior strikeout-per-nine-innings mark (11.29) than Arrieta (8.72), which means Kershaw does a better job at keeping the ball out of play.

Martin has seen first hand the strikeout majesty of Kershaw. It comes from what is now a mastery over six pitches: a four-seam fastball, the slider, the amazing curve — many believe Kershaw’s curve is baseball’s best pitch — the changeup, the sinker and an eephus type pitch, a floating curve, that Kershaw rarely uses.

“When I caught him, his changeup was a work in progress,” Martin said. “Now, he’s in control of all his pitches.”

Kershaw’s four-seamer is remarkable, moving almost an inch and a half horizontally, according to stats analysis, with 11.4 inches of vertical movement. While that fastball comes in at over 93 m.p.h. on average, the curve slows to about 75 m.p.h., a stunning differential. Kershaw is featuring the curve almost 19 per cent of the time this season, the most since his rookie season.

Martin also notes the consistency and competitiveness that are Kershaw hallmarks.

“There’s a fire in there . . . you get him outside the game, he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but if you’re gonna beat him, it’s gonna take something special,” Martin said.

Kershaw gets the ball Saturday against the Jays, and in terms of ERA-plus stats, he is on the verge of a rare and very special feat this season.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

His ERA-plus number is 188 over the last three seasons (and 199 over six starts this year), better than the best single-season mark of any pitcher who could be considered the best pitcher of his day since 2010, including Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and Tim Lincecum.

If Kershaw can complete this season at 188 or better, he would match Randy Johnson’s historic four year run from 1999-2002, in which the giant lefty went 81-27, won four consecutive Cy Young Awards, and posted a 187 ERA-plus.

Read more about: