D-Backs starting pitching prospect Max Scherzer has been getting a lot of hype around the blogosphere and on fantasy baseball message boards. So I wanted to take a quick look at his potential.
The consensus on his stuff seems to be that he still needs to develop his change-up, as he’s only a 2-pitch pitcher right now, featuring an excellent slider and fastball combination, kind of like Joba. This has led many to believe he’s destined to become a closer, assuming his change-up doesn’t improve. Anyhow, as you may have read, he’s tearing up AAA right now in 17 innings, with a sick 29/3 K/BB ratio.
However, I noticed another metric on FirstInning.com that made me more intrigued; something I can’t recall ever having been mentioned- a 61% GB rate in 17 A+ innings in ‘07, followed by a 49% rate in 73 2/3 AA innings that same year, and another 61% rate so far this season in AAA. So not only is he dominating AAA batters by striking out everyone in sight and limiting walks, albeit in a very small sample size, he’s apparently a ground ball pitcher, and potentially an extreme groundballer! In my mind, this new bit of info makes any hype you hear about him in the future even more warranted, even if said hype doesn’t include Scherzer’s ground ball-inducing ways in its analysis.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Troy Patterson // Apr 22, 2008 at 11:13 am
I imagine he’ll be getting a callup as soon as RJ hurts something. Even if they put him in the pen he should have great K numbers. I also heard him compared to Lincecum in his pitches and how they expected Lincecum to go to the pen. Maybe that will lead them to put him in the rotation though. I will probably have him recommended as a pickup soon at http://dailyrotopickups.blogspot.com
2 Mike Podhorzer // Apr 22, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for the comment Troy. The only concern I have is that he did walk 40 batters in 73 2/3 innings at AA last year, so I’d want to see a bunch more innings at AAA before believing he’s truly ready.
3 Troy Patterson // Apr 22, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Definitely something he needs to work on. I think he has enough time before RJ gets hurt which will probably be in June or July. I doubt they would put him in the Pen before then. It could have been earlier, but not when they are playing so well.
4 Patrick DiCaprio // May 4, 2008 at 5:08 pm
the holy duo of great pitching is a high GB rate and a high K rate. this can trump even command issues.
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