Adam's Baseball Breakdowns: Why Max Scherzer is the Greatest Starting Pitcher of this Generation

Introduction: Welcome back, as I hope you all are doing well! For my next post, I have decided to write on one of the greatest starting pitchers over the last 10 or so years, and that would be Max Scherzer. As a result, I have personally come to conclude that Mad Max, the Chesterfield, Missouri native, who has two different colored eyes (his left brown, his right blue), is the top pitcher that the game of baseball has consistently seen over the last decade. My main goal of the article is to provide enough "evidence" to conclude that Scherzer has earned the top spot for starting pitchers over the last decade. Most importantly though, I hope you all enjoy reading my article!

Note: I had written this article a month or so ago, but kept it in my drafts for quite some time. The reasoning behind this was because the week that I decided to post it, Scherzer went down with an oblique injury, resulting in him missing 6-8 weeks. As a result, now that he is almost back on the mound in a Mets uniform, I have decided to finally release it!

When I think of a true ace or top starting pitcher in baseball, I factor in a few things: Consistency, Durability, Ability or Skill, etc. After factoring these things in, my mind then then will usually go to a small group of starting pitchers.

One of those pitchers for me is and always has been Max Scherzer, because he seems to check all of those boxes I look for each season. At this point, I consider Scherzer to be an automatic top-tier arm every season, as just watching him pitch makes me just enjoy baseball a lot more than I usually do. Even though he is 37 years old, I always seem to take age out of consideration here because he seems to defy all the odds each year.

Before I go any further, I would like to point out that Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and of course Jacob deGrom (one of my favorites) are other options that I would not argue one bit if you would prefer one of them instead of Max. Not mentioning these other three would be considered disrespectful in my opinion, because they all are Hall of Famers in my mind and have made a major league impact over the last decade or more in baseball. In all reality, Jacob deGrom would be the best pitcher of this generation if it were not for injuries, as I think he is just amazing! deGrom is the best pitcher I have ever seen throw a baseball and it is not even close.

Personally though, it seems I have consistently watched Max the longest out of all of them and I know what he brings to the table each season, as I can almost count on him every year to stay healthy.

Where do I even begin with Mad Max? Scherzer really came on later in his career while he was in his final years with the Detroit Tigers. After winning the Cy Young in 2013, while going 21-3, Max went to Washington two years later in 2015 where he really succeeded, and when I mean succeeded, he blew the roof off the house.

Up until the 2019 season, I had never seen a starting pitcher throw a baseball better than Scherzer (Jacob deGrom), as I became a fan of Max's rather quickly. As a result, I drafted Max onto the majority of my fantasy baseball teams as my ace for multiple seasons (2017, 2018, 2022) and really focused in on the little details that he seemed to repeat while on the hill. Whether it be "stalking" the mound after a strikeout, seeing his competitive fire while warming up, tossing the ball from his glove hand to his pitching hand while getting ready to throw his next pitch, or the way he halfway turns around to leave the mound after striking someone out to end an inning. To sum it up, it is quite the experience to say the least. Never have I seen a pitcher have so much intensity on the mound than Scherzer, as he seems to get in this zone of wanting to just mow opposing lineups down every fifth day he toes the rubber.

Watching Max pitch for the last six seasons on a consistent basis has been special. Usually when he pitches I do not worry about him, simply because I have seen the same results over and over again for more than the past half decade. The only real "complaint" that I have is Max will occasionally give up the long ball, but other than that, he is pretty much lights out. Often times, I like to think that if he did not give up those home runs that he would almost be unhittable and would have a great shot at winning the ERA title each year. As a result, rarely have I seen Scherzer get hit around, as he tends to limit damage, resulting in keeping his WHIP low.

As I mentioned in the introduction, consistency is one of the things I look for specifically in a starting pitcher season after season.

Take for example 2021 AL Cy Young Winner, Robbie Ray. Ray was a guy heading into this season who I knew had "regression" written all over him. As a result, I avoided him during my fantasy drafts this season simply because he had one great year and I knew most likely that he would get over drafted and the aforementioned negative regression was going to soon come. Long story short, an ERA of 4.25 and a 1.19 WHIP through 14 starts is below average for a player who's ADP (Average Draft Position) was around 45, equivalent to the fourth or fifth rounds in drafts. Another example similar to Ray that comes to mind, would be Blake Snell, who won the AL Cy Young in 2018. That being said, I could not trust Snell if my life depended on him.

Fantasy Baseball aside, I think it is really important to watch a player for a few seasons until you really put your trust or faith into him. The other scenario would be to take a player with a great track record like Scherzer and watch those types of guys perform. Although it might take a bit more time in doing this, I think it really helps when having to choose one player over another because you know what they are individually capable of. Watching one of the top players in a sport will usually give you a great starting point at how to judge players in the long run.

Below, I have included some of Scherzer's career accolades and stat lines from previous seasons:

3x Cy Young Winner (2013, 2017, 2018)

3x NL Strikeout Leader (2016, 2017, 2018)

Led NL in Wins (2016 and 2018)

Led NL in WHIP (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021)

Over 3000 Strikeouts in career

Finished in the Top 5 of Cy Young voting in eight of last nine seasons. (2013-2019, 2021)

2013: GS 32, 21-3 W-L, 214.1 IP, 2.90 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 240 SO, 2.74 FIP, 10.1 SO/9

2016: GS 34, 20-7 W-L, 228.1 IP, 2.96 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 284 SO, 3.24 FIP, 11.2 SO/9

2017: GS 31, 16-6 W-L, 200.2 IP, 2.51 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 268 SO, 2.90 FIP, 12.0 SO/9

2018: GS 33, 18-7 W-L, 220.2 IP, 2.53 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 300 SO, 2.65 FIP, 12.2 SO/9

2019: GS 27, 11-7 W-L, 172.1 IP, 2.92 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 243 SO, 2.45 FIP, 12.7 SO/9

2021: GS 30, 15-4 W-L, 179.1 IP, 2.46 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 236 SO, 2.97 FIP, 11.8 SO/9

Stat Key:

GS= Games Started

W-L= Win-Loss Record

IP= Innings Pitched

ERA= Earned Run Average

WHIP= Walks Plus Hits Per Innings Pitched

SO= Strikeouts

FIP= Fielding Independent Pitching

SO/9= An average of how many strikeouts a pitcher gets every nine innings, equivalent to a full game.

From the stats above, personally these are what Hall of Fame numbers look like. Six seasons in which Max had an ERA below 3.00 is amazing, as his consistency is just incredible to say the least. Even his 2015 season was solid, as he registered a 2.79 ERA, even though his W-L record was a bit odd at 14-12.

Hitting 300 strikeouts in a season (2018) is amazing and is considered rare these days, as Max somehow came in second in punch outs that season. Chris Sale came away with 308 to lead the league in '18, as this stat is still something that bothers me to this day as a Scherzer fan. Another statistic that stands out to me is his WHIP in 2021 was 0.86 which is hard to believe, considering a WHIP under 1.00 is elite.

Final Thoughts: I hope you all have enjoyed reading my article on Max Scherzer, as I really enjoyed researching and looking back at his statistics for this article. Hopefully the next time Max takes the mound you can watch him dominate or even watch his highlights on YouTube for that matter, as he is something special!

See you at the Ballpark!!!

Adam