When you think of Max Scherzer you think of walks and strikeouts. Well, the good news is that his walks have decreased each of the last three seasons. The bad news: so have the strikeouts. It’s not all bad, though, because he is still striking out more than eight batters per nine innings. Scherzer has been a very consistent pitcher in his career (minus his meltdown at the beginning of the 2010 season) as he has posted an xFIP between 3.68 to 3.82, but his ERAs have ranged from 3.50 to 4.43. Just another reason why you should put very little stock into ERA numbers.
Best case scenario: Josh Beckett (BOS)
Similar players: Brandon Morrow (TOR), C.J. Wilson (LAA), Wandy Rodriguez (HOU)
Worst case scenario: Bud Norris (HOU)
Strengths
Strikeouts, consistency. All of the underlying numbers suggest that Scherzer should have had a higher strikeout rate last year (8.03 K/9) as his swinging strike percentage (9.8%), contact rate (78.4%), first-strike percentage (62.2%) and swings outside...
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