First in support of Scherzer. He's got a lot of things going for him that may be indications that this is not a fluke. In each of the last two years, he's had a winning percentage well north of .600, going 15-9 in 2011 and 16-7 in 2012. When you factor in the first three less than stellar years of his career, his performance can be chalked up to solid, steady year to year improvement. His strikeout totals follow in this trend as well. His ranking third in the entire league this year with a remarkable 131 K's already is not too much of a surprise seeing that he has topped 170 strikeouts per year in every season but one, peaking last year at 231 strikeouts (a number he could well eclipse this year at this rate). And looking at Scherzer's 2013 K/9 ratio of 10.7 becomes a little less staggering when you see that he actually finished with an even better ratio last year with 11.1. Finally, Scherzer's year to date ERA of 3.10 is not tremendously off from his career ERA of 3.79 and his G/F ratio of 0.68 fits right smack in the middle of his career range of 0.64-0.77 so he's still following his trend of generally being a fly-ball pitcher. Thus, it may just be that Max Scherzer has established himself as one of the elite pitchers in Major League Baseball.
However, like with any good story/argument, there are always two sides to the issue. Some factors don't work out so well in Scherzer's favor. He has the very definition of a high-powered offense backing him up every start as the Tigers offense boasts the best hitter in the game right now in Miguel Cabrera and a top 10 slugger in Prince Fielder to go along with several other solid bats. Scherzer definitely would not have a 12-0 record if he pitched for a team like the Houston Astros and I don't even think that on a juggernaut offensive team with not quite the amount of power that Detroit does (think St. Louis or Colorado) that Scherzer would be able to pull off that feat. It's no wonder that Scherzer, this year, leads the American League in run support as the Tigers provide him with more than 6 runs per start on average. Also worth noting is that Scherzer's sparkling 0.9 WHIP is well below his career average of 1.25. Even last year, in his best year to date, he clocked in at a pretty ugly 1.27 WHIP. This might be the result of better command as Scherzer has definitely cut down on the walks this year, posting an abnormally high (at least for him) 5.24 K/BB ratio or it could be a tell-tale sign of a fluke year. And now we can turn to our old friend, perhaps the biggest determinant in whether a pitcher's incredible year is a fluke or not, the (in)famous BABIP stat. With a .240 opposing BABIP, Scherzer ranks in the top 10 in the entire major leagues and trails only Seattle's Hisashi Iwakuma in the American League. So if we're to trust this, it means Scherzer's been quite lucky this year. Granted, Detroit defense is one of the better ones in the bigs, but a strong defense can only do so much. Sometimes, luck plays a pretty big factor. So maybe it's not all dandelions and pancakes for Max Scherzer in 2013.
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| Max Scherzer has a few people to thank for his 12-0 start |
A 12-0 start is remarkable and Max Scherzer has definitely turned some heads by accomplishing it. However, reading a bit into what made it possible helps us better gauge whether or not he is deserving of a place in the MLB's pitching elite. While each person's view may differ, personally, I feel that Max Scherzer going 12-0 would only be possible in Detroit. They have the almost perfect combo of a mammoth offense and a stellar defense to back up Scherzer every night and if he were pitching on any other team, I am certain his record would have a blemish or two on it by now. However, his strikeout totals are among the best in the league and with a much improved arsenal of pitches and better command that he has exhibited this year, I think Max Scherzer deserves consideration for the title of best pitcher in the MLB right now.
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