Riskiest Ace In Free Agency Is Max Scherzer
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Max Scherzer really came into his own with the Detroit Tigers, but he is in a very precarious position in free agency. Scherzer is 30 years old and has played on one of the most potent offensive teams in MLB. Now, this doesn’t mean Scherzer is a bad pitcher, but up until 2012, he was extremely inconsistent. On top of that, changing leagues could affect the mental side of his game.
Despite this, Scherzer has still been the one of the most dominant pitchers at the major league level in the last three years. He has pitched to a devastating 55-15 record in the last three years with a respectable 3.15 ERA. However, if you look at the years before that, his stats are much less consistent. From 2008-11, he only had a record of 36-35, and he pitched to a much less impressive 3.78 ERA. Now, averaging that out, Scherzer has a career 3.58 ERA with an overall record of 91-50.
Even at his worst, Scherzer is a very respectable pitcher. The problem is that he is going to get ridiculous ace money when he could very easily regress into a guy who is just respectable. So when teams start pursuing the Tigers pitcher, they shouldn’t really look at him as the guy who won 55 games in the last three games.
Instead, he is a pitcher who, in a worst-case scenario, would be a guy who can pitch to a respectable record and eat 200-plus innings a year.
Matthew Haines is a Chicago Cubs writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @mhaine86 , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
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