I was saving this.
Oh, the fun we’ve had in this series. We’ve studied dynamic young aces and masterful hurlers of the past. We’ve seen sizzling fastballs, mind-blowing sliders and pocket-dimension changeups. (You can see them all here.) The best pitchers in the world are wizards from the line of Dumbledore, and yet … there was one pitcher I kept in my back pocket for a few weeks. I was saving him, hoarding him, waiting for the day. Today is that day.
Because … well, he’s a little less wizard and a little more buzzsaw. This isn’t trickery; it’s brute force.
It’s Max Scherzer day.
Scherzer is the best pitcher alive, having taken that “crown” from Clayton Kershaw as the Dodger lefty has declined amid injuries. A three-time Cy Young award winner (1 in the American League, 2 in the National League), Scherzer is a hard-throwing strikeout machine with an unorthodox delivery and an aggressive approach on the mound. He pitches like Liam Neeson in Taken. He’s basically my baseball fever dream come to life and a true gift to all who trade in baseball gifs.
Scherzer has led the league in strikeouts the last three seasons, including a sizzling 300 in 220 innings in 2018 — this in his age-33 season. He’s sat down at least 240 every year since 2014. You’ll be shocked to learn his fastball is probably the best of its kind in the sport. Take a look:
- The spin rate on Scherzer’s fastball ranks in the 94th percentile (!!!)
- Hitters missed 30.4% of the swings they took against it — note that he threw it almost 1750 times
- Hitters produced a terrible .198 batting average and a putrid .248 wOBA against it
Yeah, so it’s good. We’ll see this in clear detail in today’s Ode to a Pitcher. Scherzer’s heater tips the scales in each at-bat and allows him to work aggressively regardless of the count. For example, a pitcher throwing a fastball in a 3-0 count is considered at a disadvantage — the hitter knows what is coming because no pitcher likes allowing free baserunners — and Major League hitters armed with that intel fare quite well.
But when you take Scherzer’s fastball — with its mid-90s velocity and incredible spin — that advantage is reduced. Then we remember he has a brutal, late-breaking slider and a darting changeup (tucked so neatly within the release of his fastball that its an act of subterfuge). Yeah. You try hitting this dude.
The Chicago Cubs found themselves in Mad Max’s crosshairs on a Sunday night last season.
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Scherzer starts right fielder Jason Heyward off with a fastball. Note the late movement on the pitch and the perfect placement, nestled right into the up-and-in edge of the strike zone.
Scherzer’s delivery is kinda violent — you’ll get a better look at this as the breakdown rolls on. He finishes toward the plate with a thrust, sending his head down as he hammers the ball to the plate. Not sure many pitching coaches would want their high schoolers to work this way, but alas.
Having watched the fastball near his chest, Heyward is far out in front of Scherzer’s curveball. (Despite the difference in the gifs, Scherzer always takes the ball behind his head during his windup.)
See how Scherzer pulls himself glove-side right as he releases the ball? Lots of analysts assumed he’d get hurt at some point, but he’s been a pretty durable pitcher in his career. And dominant. Pitchers are crazy, man.
Look at that sharp, late break on this curveball. My goodness.
Defending the whole plate against Scherzer is a hell of a task. He can attack you anywhere; where do you focus? What do you sit on?
Having worked up and in and then down in the zone, he comes back near Heyward’s knees to finish the first at-bat.
Oh — and Heyward is down 0-2.
Fastball. Curve. Slider.
Strikeout.
Center fielder Albert Almora Jr steps up, batting from the right side. Scherzer drops a curveball right over the plate for strike one. It’s kind of a hanger — I doubt he was pleased with it.
Scherzer comes back with a hard fastball just off the plate away. Almora takes it for a ball. You can already see the way the Nationals ace likes to attack the plate. He has no fear of any zone.
With the count sitting 1-1, Scherzer attacks Almora a foot lower in the strike zone and forces the young outfielder to hack the fastball foul. Without reading too much into one swing, Almora probably isn’t reading Scherzer well. Who would? That delivery is just something else.
What do we lament each week? The poor souls facing these baseball-chucking cyborgs in 1-2 counts. In the modern game, aside from maybe deGrom, it doesn’t get more terrifying in said situations than seeing Scherzer’s gangly delivery barreling down at you.
Oh, Albert Almora. You did the best you could. You made your family proud.
Glibness aside, this is a master class. The slider looks exactly the same out of the hand as the fastball that Almora barely knocked foul one pitch before. What’s he supposed to do with this? The pitch dives from shin to ankle in a matter of milliseconds.
Up next is left fielder Kyle Schwarber, the Cubs first choice for designated hitter should the rule come to the NL. (It should.) Schwarber watches a fastball up and in for ball one.
A mistake: Scherzer throws another fastball but leaves it just enough over the plate to allow a hit. To his credit, Schwarber didn’t try to pull this ball over the wall; he shortened his swing and flicked the ball into center field. As you often hear on broadcasts, that’s a good piece of hitting. It is. If an ace like Scherzer gives you a mistake over the plate, don’t get cute. Take your base.
Catcher Willson Contreras steps up with Schwarber on first. He’s zero threat to steal. Scherzer is free and clear to attack without mercy.
Haha. Yeah, as if he needed permission.
That’s a nasty fastball, even if it was a ball.
Ever working the zone, Scherzer throws another fastball — but higher, right above the tip of the strike zone. This is the clearest example I can give you of spin rate and velocity. The batter has to be really on this pitch to drive it. Alas, Contreras unloads on it but knocks it foul behind home plate.
Man, did Contreras have a chance to plant one in the seats here. This is a flat-out mistake by Scherzer, a flat breaking ball left right in the kill zone for a righty. Contreras just misses and pulls it foul.
Sometimes hitters just miss, same as pitchers. That could be all this was (the Cubs catcher produced a 92 OPS+ last year, so Mike Trout he is not) but I wonder how much the rest of Scherzer’s repertoire plays a role. Are you expecting a fastball? Caught off guard by the difference in speed, even if the pitch was in the zone? It’s not like the breaking stuff isn’t loaded with spin too …
Oh, Willson. Now you sit in a two-strike count, facing down a Dark Lord of the Mound, armed in full glory and hungry for another strikeout. Oh, your fate. You saw what happened to Jason Heyward and Albert Almora in similar predicaments. You heard their wails. And now here you are, caught in the same chains.
Did the baseball gods conspire against you, Willson, to be here and now, facing this burden? Do they laugh at your mortal peril, at your impending doom? Will they offer no relief?
No.
They won’t.
They offer instead the crushing boot, a changeup that twists you into a knot and sends you a broken hitter back into your dugout.
***
My favorite pitcher ever is Mariano Rivera. I don’t hide this. Max Scherzer is darn close though, and perhaps because part of my imagination wants to believe if I had any energy in my right arm I’d pitch like him. Who knows.
Scherzer, entering his mid-30s, hasn’t lost much if anything in his game. Jacob deGrom rightfully won the NL Cy Young, but Scherzer was easily second and figures to be in the running again. That bizarre, violent delivery might someday collect a toll on his right arm, but so far he continues to pile up strikeouts. Even with Stephen Strasburg and the newly signed Patrick Corbin in the Nationals rotation, Scherzer remains the best player on the team and the most consistent and dominant pitcher alive.
Long live Mad Max.
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This was Ode to a Pitcher, a weekly feature from Adkins on Sports where we break down a brilliant pitching performance. These posts are meant to be informative and fun, just like baseball coverage should be.
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