Max Scherzer

Maxwell M. Scherzer (born July 27, 1984 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a starting pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball.

After playing for Parkway Central High School, Scherzer was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 43rd round (1291st overall) in the 2003 Major League Baseball draft but did not sign and instead attended the University of Missouri. He was then drafted again in 2006 by the Arizona Diamondbacks, this time in the 1st round as the 11th overall pick. He began playing in the Diamondbacks organization in 2007 with the Single-A Visalia Oaks. He was promoted to Double-A Mobile BayBears after three impressive starts for the Oaks. After a good start to the 2008 season in Tucson he was called up to the Diamondbacks on April 27, 2008.

Major League Baseball career

On April 29, 2008, Scherzer made his MLB debut against the Houston Astros when he came on in relief and threw 4 1/3 perfect innings while striking out seven. While doing so he also set the record for the number of consecutive batters retired (13) for a pitcher making his MLB debut as a reliever. The previous record was 12 set in 1962 by the Dodgers' Pete Richert. The seven strikeouts were one short of the major-league record for most in a debut relief appearance. The Pirates' Barry Jones had eight on April 20, 1986. On April 30, 2008, the Diamondbacks announced [1] he would be placed into the starting rotation, due to his impressive start. In his first appearance as a starter for the D-Backs, Scherzer allowed 5 runs (2 earned) in 4 innings, while striking out 5; taking the first loss of his major league career. He pitched against the Cardinals, his growing-up team, on September 24th and lost for the fourth team in his career in a winless season, going 5 innings, allowing 7 hits and 4 runs (2 earned) while walking 2 and striking out 4.[2]

Personal

Scherzer was born with two differently colored eyes; his right eye is blue and his left one is brown[3].

Go Max Scherzer!!

Scherzer on track for Spring Training
Righty reports feeling good following throwing session

By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com

PHOENIX -- D-backs pitcher Max Scherzer played catch on Monday, and it appears things went better than they did earlier this month when he first started throwing.

"He played catch from about 60 feet and everything went well," said D-backs manager Bob Melvin. "No problems. Looks like he's on track for Spring Training."

Scherzer said last week that his arm didn't feel great when he threw earlier this month, but that it was not a big deal.

"It's just typical of what I get when I start up," he said.

The departure of free agent Randy Johnson, along with the fact that the D-backs have been unsuccessful in trying to add a free-agent starting pitcher, has made Scherzer's role in the rotation more important.

The D-backs would prefer to land an additional starter and are still working toward that. They made offers to free-agent hurlers Jon Garland and Randy Wolf but were turned down.

Other names that are said to be on Arizona's list of potential free-agent targets are Braden Looper and Jason Jennings, and it's not clear whether they could reignite talks about Garland.

"It's fair to say we're talking to a lot of players," D-backs GM Josh Byrnes said. "And we're also talking about some trades."

If they are able to land a pitcher, they could slide Scherzer into the fifth spot. That would allow them the flexibility to skip him at times and make it easier to keep his innings around 170.

If they don't land another starter, then they would look at internal candidates to fill the role. Billy Buckner, Yusmeiro Petit, Juan Gutierrez and Cesar Valdez are some of the potential options.

Petit has the most big league experience of the group, having appeared in 48 games over the past three seasons, but ideally he would be someone they could use as a long reliever/spot starter behind Scherzer.

Thanks for the Info

Just noticed this thread.

Is this one of bobrob's favorite players that I didn't know about or something?

Update:

Scherzer is 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA in 2 starts this year.

GO SCHERZER!!!