World Series is trip down memory lane for ex-DBacks pitcher Max Scherzer
Max Scherzer’s young family made a discovery last week. Upon finding out that his Texas Rangers would be facing the Diamondbacks in the World Series, Scherzer’s three young girls learned how their dad’s playing career began.
“I had to show my girls,” Scherzer said. “‘Girls, I used to play for the Diamondbacks.’ They were like, ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah, here’s a video.’”
For Scherzer, who turned 39 this summer, his time with the Diamondbacks is so far in the past that he was barely asked about it at his hour-long media availability prior to the start of the World Series.
He won a Cy Young Award with the Detroit Tigers, two more with the Washington Nationals, whom he helped to win a World Series. But with the Diamondbacks, the club that drafted him with the 11th overall pick in 2006, he made just 46 appearances in 2008 and 2009 before being traded.
“People forget,” he said.
Scherzer, for one, will never forget his major league debut at Chase Field, the same park in which he will start Game 3 of the World Series for the Rangers on Monday night.
A hyped starting pitching prospect, he was brought to the big leagues in late April 2008 to provide coverage for an overtaxed Diamondbacks bullpen. At the time, he had been perhaps the best pitcher in all of the minors, posting a 1.17 ERA with 38 strikeouts and three walks in 23 innings for Triple-A Tucson.
With the Diamondbacks trailing, 6-2, in the bottom of the third inning, Scherzer trotted out for what would be nothing short of an electric performance. He retired each of the 13 batters he faced across 4 1/3 innings, striking out seven on 47 pitches.
“You always have the doubt of, ‘Do I belong here? Can my stuff play here? Am I good enough to be here?’” Scherzer said. “I think every player has to go through that and has to mentally get over that and say, ‘No, I do belong here.’ You have to see what your stuff looks like against the best hitters in the world, guys you grew up watching.”
The first batter he faced was the opposing pitcher, Houston Astros right-hander Jack Cassell. Scherzer struck him out on six pitches. It was the way the rest of the outing unfolded that allowed Scherzer’s confidence to grow.
“I remember before that game, we had talked about, ‘Lance Berkman, this is a great fastball hitter,’” Scherzer said. “I get in the game and I blow a fastball by Lance Berkman. All of a sudden you realize, ‘No, I do belong here.’
“And, ‘Miguel Tejada is a tough guy to strike out.’ I struck him out. ‘I do belong here. My change-up is good.’ Everybody thinks they can pitch in the big leagues and then you get to the point where you know you can pitch in the big leagues. I remember believing it from that moment forward: ‘There’s nothing here I can’t do.’”
That has been the case for much of his career — despite the concerns that led Diamondbacks to trade him. At that point, after the 2009 season, the organization had questions about his ability to stay healthy. He had dealt with various arm and shoulder issues, none of them overly serious, and had a delivery that conveyed effort and aggressiveness.
Clearly, those concerns were unwarranted. In parts of 16 seasons in the majors, Scherzer has never suffered a major arm injury.
Scherzer also had a limited repertoire and could often see his pitch count climb precipitously in the early innings. He had an explosive fastball and a usable change-up, but he had nothing close to the consistent, five-pitch attack he has featured for much of his career.
Scherzer was sent to the Detroit Tigers in December 2009 as part of a three-team deal that netted the Diamondbacks a pair of starting pitchers in Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy. Jackson was later flipped to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Daniel Hudson. In Kennedy and Hudson, the Diamondbacks had two frontline starters who led them to the postseason in 2011.
But the trade was a clear miscalculation for the Diamondbacks. And it was a disappointment for Scherzer, though he intimated that he would not have been as upset by the deal had he known then what he knows now.
“I have no ill-will towards the Diamondbacks,” he said. “Now that I’ve been in the game long enough I’ve seen the business of the game. The GMs are under a tremendous amount of pressure to win and construct teams. As players, sometimes we get caught in the crosshairs of decision-making and what teams have to do.”
On Monday, Scherzer will be back on the same mound where he dominated the Houston Astros 15 years ago. And his three young girls will be able to see for themselves as he faces his old team, rather than watching a lo-fi YouTube clip.
“It was like, ‘Look how young Dada is,’” Scherzer said. “It’s fun to relive that. You relive all the feelings from that debut. Everybody remembers their debut.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: World Series is trip down memory lane for ex-DBacks pitcher Max Scherzer
