Max Scherzer: Eyes of the Tiger
3/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The following article appeared in the Feb. 8th edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
COLUMBIA, MO. -- The thrill of the gas was so exhilarating, so necessary to his success that Max Scherzer as a high school pitcher would reach peak mph on his fastball only as his mechanics flew apart in a berserk jumble. Forsaking economy for power and balance for speed, Scherzer "touched 90" but did so with a wicked flourish:
Whiplash.
"I used to have the worst head jerk, my hat would fly off sometimes," said Scherzer, the Parkway Central grad who is the All-America ace for the University of Missouri's nationally ranked baseball team. "That's how violent I was. It was violent, real violent. I was so raw."
Working with Tigers coach Tim Jamieson, Scherzer refined his delivery. In drills, he toed the rubber like a flamingo, steadying himself on his push-off leg and bending down to pluck baseballs off the mound. He closed his eyes, repeated the flamingo. He found a mental signpost and repeated it: Chin over toe. Chin over toe.
Balance was the goal.
Firing 99 mph when it mattered most was the result.
Scherzer and the 10th-ranked Tigers open the season today in the Buccaneer Classic in Charleston, S.C. He was the scheduled starter for the season opener until slamming his pitching hand in a car door Tuesday night. The injury, to the middle finger, is not serious but will delay his first appearance.
Many within the program feel this season could feature the best Mizzou club ever, and many around the sport believe it will end with Scherzer's selection early in the first round of Major League Baseball's entry draft. The junior righthander's emergence from prep fireballer to treasured arm has dovetailed with the climb of the Tigers.
Mizzou is one of just two Big 12 schools to have been in the NCAA Tournament the past three seasons - defending national champion Texas is the other. With a top-20 ranking in all four major polls, the Tigers are ranked in the preseason for the first time since 1983. The No. 10 rank in Baseball America's preseason poll is the highest ever for Mizzou.
Like Scherzer's, the Tigers' rise reaches crescendo this spring. "We've had three years of success," Scherzer said. "We've never really been recognized this early. We've always been picked (low to start), and then we always went out and surprised everybody. Well, now somebody has said we should do well this year. . . . Obviously we have the opportunity to take it up a level, but it is on this year."
The Tigers return all but one starter from a 40-23 team that led the Big 12 in runs scored (509) by using a grinding, patient offense built on a conference-best 357 walks. Scherzer leads a trio of players expected to be in the first 100 taken in the next draft. Saturday starter Nathan Culp is a junior lefty who, like Scherzer, had nine victories last year. Center fielder Hunter Mense, who hit .327 last year, is a preseason All-American and, like Scherzer, spent the summer playing for the U.S. national team.
In successful seasons past - like 1996, when the Tigers won the Big Eight regular-season title - MU had been picked low and surprised. The coaches picked them to finish third in the conference this year.
One coach voted Mizzou to win it. "I thought they were the best team in our league at the end of the season," said Baylor coach Steve Smith, whose club was one of three Big 12 schools to play in the College World Series a year ago. "I would have picked them to win the league this year. I thought about it. But I didn't want to do that to them, to Tim. So I picked them second. Being at Baylor, I wanted to put the onus on Texas, right?"
The attention and the attractions - Scherzer, Culp, et. al. - have forced preparations upon the program. The Tigers attracted the fewest fans of any Big 12 ballclub last year (17,402), yet buoyed by their ranking they are preparing a formal bid to host an NCAA regional. Never before have they had a policy for pro scouts - sit anywhere, was the rule - but this season the sheer quantity of scouts expected has necessitated a section of seats to be set aside.
Fridays will be crowded there.
That will be the night the ace, Scherzer, the reigning Big 12 pitcher of the year, starts. A stout righthander, cut from the mold of a power pitcher, Scherzer is gregarious, good-naturedly taking ribbing from his teamamtes about his two different-colored eyes, a hereditary trait.
"You pitching out of the blue one today?" they kid. He winks the brown one at them. All eyes are on him as Scherzer, advised by super agent Scott Boras, is expected to be the highest draft pick ever from Mizzou. Not only the school's first ever first-round pick, but arguably the best arm in college ball and possibly a top-five pick.
Drafted in the 43rd round in 2003 by his favorite club, the Cardinals, Scherzer opted for college. His freshman year he reworked his delivery. The mechanics fixed, balance restored, he said he added the final element - "confidence" - that summer as a closer in the Northwoods League.
He came out of summer ball with a national rep for his mid-90s fastball and, over his sophomore year at Mizzou, he matured as a starter. He struck out 14 as he pitched the first seven innings of a combined no-hitter against Texas Tech. In Nebraska, he told Jamieson he was spent after the seventh. Supporting a 2-1 lead, however, he was the Tigers' best bet to win.
He pushed through to finish his first career complete game by beguiling the Cornhuskers with his slider. He struck out five of the final six batters he faced, including Alex Gordon, the winner of baseball's Heisman, the Golden Spikes Award. He finished the season with 131 strikeouts in 106 innings.
Then, in July, he hit 99 mph.
"It wasn't just that it was 99," he said. "It was 99 when it was needed."
Both Smith, the head coach of Team USA, and Jamieson, an assistant for the team, confirmed what the scoreboard in Durham, N.C., reported. USA led Nicaragua 2-1 in the sixth - the runs provided by Mense's two-run single - and there were two runners on and one out. By his count, Scherzer figures he has "10 good bullets" in his arm every game. To escape the inning, he unfurled a changeup and then fastballs at accelerating speeds - 95, 98 and, to end the inning with a strikeout, 99.
"I haven't seen a guy like this guy we saw then," Jamieson said. "At the most important time, he dialed it up, took it beyond anything I've seen. He has that ability."
Jamieson has one concern.
In his 11th season as head coach, never have there been such hopes for the Tigers, let alone on a Tiger. He worries "Hunter is going to try to hit more home runs, that Max Scherzer is going to try to throw 99 every time" to stir the scouts, but he trusts. Such "external expectations" have brought rankings, plaudits, even recruits, but also dusted off a word in Mizzou's lexicon. Scherzer said it. He said the team has talked about it.
Omaha. Site of the College World Series.
To get there, Jamieson has reminded them, individual performance - the kind that raises a junior's draft status - must have roots in team success. Not vice versa. It is as he stressed to a freshman Scherzer learning the delivery that sped his fastball and his ascent: Balance is essential.
"For everyone coming back, for all the things we have going for this program - the talent, the makeup - you've got to feel that we have a shot to get to Omaha," Scherzer said. "It'd be taking this program up that big step, that next level. We want to do that. We want to do that. For Hunter and Culp, it's the same thing. You're not playing for the draft. You're playing for Omaha."
dgoold@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8285
