I’ve really liked this kid since the day Mizzou played at NU and he gave Gordon an 0-fer and drilled him…....onions. He gets the rap of having “effort” in his delivery because of the head snap at release but IMO that’s not a bad indicator for a pitcher that gets as late in his delivery as he does. His mannerisms are little loose which makes me nervous about his ability to not lose focus for a pitch or two in clutch spots which kills at the ML level but IMO there is no reason this kid’s floor is any less than a #3…..unless of course you pitch for the Dbacks.

He bad….

That said, there is a certain inconsistancy in the follow-through action of his right leg in the three different pitch offerings featured on the video.

While you can argue that like Timmy Baseball, he ends up with proper form and mechanics, I am somewhat uncomfortable with the inconsistancy of the leg action. Could this possibly portend a k/9 rate of less than 14 per 9 in the bigs….I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later.

people who see something unorthodox in a pitching motion and automatically see an injury risk are people who have never played ball before (at least at a slightly competitive level). It’s refreshing for me to read a writeup that doesn’t automatically predict DL stints throughout his career.

That said, I think the D-back’s are the perfect team for him. Randy might need to limit his innings, so a couple spot starts wouldn’t be out of the question. And I can’t really see a major controversy brewing if Scherzer pitches well. He can pitch some meaningful innings in the bullpen in the meantime, and possibly replace Edgar Gonzalez if necessary (which wouldn’t be a controversy either, cuz it’s Edgar Gonzalez). The fact that he is in this good situation and not killing himself for every out (Cain, T-Linc…) is just another plus.

While I wasn’t suggesting that Max had a specific motion that would eventually lead to injury, most pitching coaches preach repetitive motion for muscle memory, and this would appear to defy conventional teaching methodology. To summate, it has been my experience that most pitching coaches today prefer that pitchers exercise the exact same motion and mechanics on each and every pitch; that the arm come out of the same slot, that the feet land in the same position each time etc.

I was merely pointing out that in the video, Scherzer’s right foot landed in an unorthodox position on the first and third pitches in the video, and that most coaches preach against this, if for no other reason than self-protection, in case the ball is hit back through the box.

I concur that Max is in a good place, other than the fact that he will be pitching half his games in a hitter’s paradise.

Whether he will end up rotation this year or not is anybody’s guess. For an extended period of time, several years ago, Houston was successful with their eventual starters by using them out of the pen for the first year or two. It introduced them to the level of competition while typically cutting down on innings pitched.