Line of the Day: July 20th, 2011

Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers allowed just three hits and struck out 12 over eight shutout innings to beat Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants 1-0. His 167 strikeouts this season are tops in the majors. (video recap)

Line: 8 IP | 3 H | 0 ER | 1 BB | 12 K; W | QS

(box score)

My fantasy perspective: Kershaw continues to prove he's right there with the rest of today's elite starting pitchers and is putting up Cy Young-worthy numbers. He's now 11-4 with a 2.72 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and 167 strikeouts in 145.2 innings pitched.

A deeper look into his numbers show his xFIP of 2.60 is actually lower than his ERA (that's a good thing) and his 10.32 K/9, 29% K%, 2.35 BB/9 and 6.6% BB% are all career-bests. He's currently ranked as the third-best starting pitcher in fantasy baseball according to ESPN's Player Rater, too.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention he's just 23 years old. The present, as well as the future, looks very bright for the young ace of the Dodgers. Now if only they could assemble a decent team around him.

Question: Where would you rank Kershaw among today's elite starting pitchers and who's ahead of him, if anyone?

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