Tag: Max Scherzer

Why Max Scherzer has 2 different colored eyes: Heterochromia, explained

Here’s the condition behind Max Scherzer having two different-colored eyes.

If you’re watching Max Scherzer pitch in the 2023 World Series for the Texas Rangers, you may have noticed he has two different-colored eyes. The left one is brown and the right one is blue.

What’s that all about? Here’s the answer: It’s a condition known as heterochromia.

Scherzer has had this since he was young, and per the American Academy of Opthamology, “if your infant has heterochromia, he or she should be examined by an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist will confirm the appearance of heterochromia and look for any underlying causes. In most cases, there will be no concerning disease or condition causing the eye color variation. However, it is important to rule out these conditions.”

There you have it!

Max Scherzer seemed weirdly annoyed at getting a strikeout via pitch clock violation

He seemed pretty annoyed. But why?

The legend of Max Scherzer includes so many instances and tales of him being so locked in on the mound that he gets mad if he’s taken out of his routine.

We’ve also seen how the pitch clock has gotten in his way at times, and here’s a case where it actually helped him … but he still appeared to be annoyed.

While facing Brandon Drury of the Los Angeles Angels, the hitter got called for a third strike on a pitch clock violation. It also happened to be the third out of the inning.

So as Scherzer started toward the dugout, he made some kind of motion toward the dugout and tossed the ball over his shoulder:

Was he annoyed? If so, why? It’s one less pitch for him to throw! A shorter inning for him! It’s a good thing!

The Mets won the MLB trade deadline by giving up (nearly) everything they could

This was far better than when the Mets got Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler for R.A. Dickey and Carlos Beltran.

It is a bitter pill to swallow when a front office effectively decides that the season is a lost cause, but the Mets played this one perfectly.

Although they were a popular preseason pick to win the World Series, this team never materialized into anything other than a middling mess. It wasn’t going anywhere and they were a $350 million disaster.

The Mets (50-55) had a losing record heading into the MLB trade deadline and it was time to pull the plug. Despite winning over 100 games last season and then making flashy moves like signing Justin Verlander, this was a team simply not succeeding on the field.

So ownership and the front office decided to effectively throw in the towel for the remainder of this failed season. The odds are strong that they may effectively punt on next year, too, unless that was just lip service to get Max Scherzer to waive his no-trade clause.

For what it is worth: Mets star Francisco Lindor says he is still convinced that the Mets are positioning themselves as a winning franchise. They just, as planned, improved their farm system in the process.

New York is assuredly one of the suitors for superstar Shohei Ohtani in free agency. The AL MVP frontrunner is apparently getting recruited by Mets pitcher Kodai Senga and recently posed for a photo with Mets legend Dwight Gooden.

But in the meanwhile, the Mets opted to cash in their veteran arms and received some young talent in return. Remember when New York traded a veteran Carlos Beltran for the promising Zack Wheeler in July 2011 or the aging R.A. Dickey for Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud in December 2012?

This feels like history repeating itself but with far more magnitude.

Scherzer (39 years old), Verlander (40) and reliever David Robertson (38) were all moved before the deadline. Mark Canha (34) and Tommy Pham (35) were traded from New York. That sounds like a bad thing, especially after so much money was spent to acquire these big names.

But many of these players were potentially on their way out soon, anyway.

The Mets received notable names including infielder Luisangel Acuña (21 years old), outfielder Drew Gilbert (22), outfielder Ryan Clifford (20), infielder Marco Vargas (18), catcher Ronald Hernandez (19), pitcher Justin Jarvis (23) and infielder Jeremy Rodriguez (17) in return.

It was a “years-long rebuild over the course of a week” for the Mets, as noted by Anthony DiComo.

Acuña, Gilbert, Clifford and Vargas immediately become some of the most notable names in the New York farm system. All four were considered top-101 prospects by Baseball Prospectus. Gilbert was a collegiate teammate of Blade Tidwell, a top pitching prospect for the Mets, at Tennessee.

MLB.com projects Acuña and Jarvis should arrive in the majors by next season. Gilbert (2024-25) and Clifford (2026) are not terribly far off on the timeline, either.

If even one or two of these players develop the way that the Mets saw from Wheeler and Syndergaard, this would be a tremendous return.

As the Mets retool with a more youthful roster, meanwhile, fans should probably expect to see more playing time for those already within their farm systems (e.g. infielder Ronny Mauricio as well as pitchers Coleman Crow, José Butto and Grant Hartwig).

This season wasn’t ideal for the Mets but they dramatically improved their middle-of-the-road farm system without surrendering core players like Francisco Lindor (29 years old), Pete Alonso (28), Brett Baty (23), Francisco Alvarez (21) as well as veterans like Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil.

Soon, the Mets may have a top-tier farm system. Already, via FanGraphs, they have more hitting prospects (five) with an overall Future Value grade of at least 50 than any other organization in the MLB.

While their long-term pitching plans are still suspect outside of Senga, this was a massive win to add so much young talent to a roster that is still mostly intact.

Now, they can replenish their rotation in free agency (even if they do miss out on Ohtani), add reliever Edwin Diaz back once he recovers from his injury, or use some of these young players to acquire the next star to hit the trade block.

That is a much better scenario than finishing the season with a losing record and a few players past their prime.

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Max Scherzer angrily ranted about the pitch clock after his between-innings warmup got cut short

Max Scherzer had some choice words about the pitch clock after this incident.

The pitch clock has been an adjustment for many pitchers this season and Max Scherzer is no exception. After all, the New York Mets pitcher had a  pitch clock violation called on him earlier on in the season that infamously negated a double play.

And now, Scherzer is even running into the pitch clock during between-innings warmups.

On Thursday, between innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, Scherzer was stopped from completing his warmup due to the pitch clock. Scherzer was able to throw seven of his eight warmup pitches, but home plate umpire Tripp Gibson halted the pitcher before his final throw.

Here’s how the incident went down during the game.

After the game, Scherzer went on quite the rant about the pitch clock and how it makes no sense to have one in that situation.

Scherzer really does have a point here. Pitchers already have a limit on the amount of warmup pitches they can throw, so what’s the point of having a pitch clock too? And according to Scherzer, both pitchers and umpires are frustrated with the way the clock has been implemented so far.

There will always be growing pains with new systems, but the pitch clock could definitely be tuned up a bit more.

David Cone’s segment on sticky stuff showed Max Scherzer’s suspension is complicated

Rosin + sweat + rubbing alcohol = really sticky hands.

The Max Scherzer suspension for an ejection due to sticky substances on his pitching hand was silly to being with — the veteran hurler claimed all he had on was rosin and sweat, which aren’t illegal.

Then? He had to wash off his hand with alcohol, which might have made things MORE sticky.

On Sunday night, as Scherzer’s New York Mets faced the San Francisco Giants, ESPN’s David Cone commented on an experiment he did using rosin and sweat, which was filmed. You can watch below as Cone showed him using the rosin and some sweat, plus some rubbing alcohol.

The result? A baseball stuck to his two fingers with ease:

So maybe Scherzer’s argument and claim is valid?

An excellent video provided a word-for-word breakdown of Max Scherzer’s argument with the umpires

“I promise you on my (expletive) life!”

New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was ejected in the third inning of Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers because, according to umpires Phil Cuzzi and Dan Bellino, his hands were way too sticky.

Scherzer was adamant he didn’t break any rules about sticky substances and claimed after the game that all he had on his hands was rosin and sweat. It turned out he made a similar argument to the umpires on the field before he was ultimately ejected.

As the argument was taking place, MLB fans and lip readers could see that Scherzer was repeatedly telling the umps that he only had rosin on his hands. And in a great breakdown video from Jomboy Media, we got an even closer look at the lively discussion. (Warning: NSFW language in the video)

Scherzer kept saying it was “rosin and sweat” over and over. He even took it to a new level when he said, “It’s rosin and sweat. I promise you on my (expletive) life. That is literally rosin.”

Now, the umpires didn’t buy the explanation. They said after the game that the stickiness level was so extreme that Scherzer deserved an ejection and that the stickiness got worse upon the second check.

Of course, the alcohol used to wash Scherzer’s hands could have played a role. But what a strange scene all the way around. Those breakdown videos never get old, though.

Mets pitcher Jimmy Yacabonis celebrated a strikeout by subtly mocking the umps after Max Scherzer’s ejection

The pettiness is elite.

You’re not going to find many teams that want to exhaust the bullpen in the middle of a long road trip, but the New York Mets didn’t exactly have a choice on Wednesday. And you could tell they were upset about it.

Just look at Mets pitcher Jimmy Yacabonis.

In what was initially supposed to be a matchup between current Mets ace Max Scherzer and former Mets ace Noah Syndergaard, those plans changed after the third inning when Scherzer was ejected for a sticky substance on his glove. Scherzer adamantly argued that it was rosin, but the umpiring crew led by Dan Bellino and Phil Cuzzi wasn’t buying it. Scherzer was ejected, and in came Yacabonis who ended the fifth inning with a strikeout of Freddie Freeman.

Check out how he celebrated the strikeout, though.

Yacabonis mockingly looked around for the umpires to do a sticky substance check. How’s that for confidence?

We’ll find out more about the crew’s decision after the game, but in the meantime, Mets fans loved Yacabonis’ subtle jab at the umpires.

Lip readers deciphered what a livid Max Scherzer told umpires before being ejected for sticky substances

“It’s rosin!”

Moody Max Scherzer is a MLB past time at this point, but Wednesday may have been a whole different level for the New York Mets pitcher.

During Scherzer’s return to Los Angeles against his former club, a bizarre sequence of events unfolded at Dodgers Stadium. Sticky substances have caused many a kerfuffle over the years since its the institution of random checks from umpires and Scherzer is certainly no stranger to them by now.

In the third inning of Wednesday’s afternoon game against the Dodgers, Scherzer was forced to change gloves due to a possible sticky substance. As expected, Scherzer wasn’t happy, but complied with umpire Phil Cuzzi’s ruling.

An inning later, Scherzer was ejected after another sticky substances check that caused the pitcher to become completely heated. Cameras caught the whole exchange, and observant lip readers believe Scherzer emphatically told the umpires that what was on his hands was rosin, a legal substance pitchers can use for their grip.

Those lip readers were then confirmed in their suspicious after Mets’ field reporter Steve Gelbs gave the rundown of Scherzer’s ejection later in the game.

After the game, Scherzer doubled down on the rosin reasoning when talking to the media.

It remains to be seen if Scherzer will get hit with the automatic 10-game suspension due to the ejection or if Major League Baseball will take another look at it to see if it truly was rosin on his hands.

Sweat and Rosin T-Shirt (BreakingT)

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Here’s what MLB fans had to say about Scherzer’s heated ejection from Wednesday’s game due to sticky substances.

The Mets’ broadcast had the most overdramatic use of the pitch clock while Max Scherzer pitched

This angle was so needlessly silly.

The third base line wasn’t the only place the Mets took advantage of some dramatics on Monday night. As the pitch clock continues to establish a firm foothold across the MLB, the SNY broadcast team decided to ham up an at-bat between New York’s Max Scherzer and San Diego’s Trent Grisham.

How? They overlayed the pitch clock in the center of a “faceoff” angle between Scherzer and Grisham.

I know the pitch clock was instituted to establish some urgency for the players, but this might have been taking it a little too far to add more weight to a routine at-bat.

I mean, come on. It’s early April, with just over 10 games in the books. I can understand playing up the theatrics for viewers at home on occasion, but this feels like too much. At the very least, it makes everything seem overdramatic.

For what it’s worth, the SNY broadcast has become known for experimentation with its artistic shots. Perhaps it’d be good to dial this idea back.

Max Scherzer had a double play erased by a split-second pitch clock violation

The negated double play led to an eight-run Washington Nationals inning.

Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock is either a godsend for the sport or ruining the game, depending on who you talk to. For New York Mets ace Max Scherzer, it was a little of both Friday.

Scherzer made news earlier this spring for saying he’d use that new clock to his advantage in order to “mess with the hitter’s timing.” That, combined with PitchCom technology that connects pitchers and catchers without the use of hand signals, gives the 15-year veteran a new edge to test when it comes to shutting down opposing offenses.

But Friday, that new rule wiped out a double play that would have helped Scherzer out of an early jam in a spring training showdown with the Washington Nationals.

With runners at the corners, Scherzer failed to deliver his 0-0 pitch to Nationals catcher Riley Adams before the 20 second time limit expired. As a result, his soft grounder to third base and the two outs that followed were wiped off the scorecard and replaced with a ball. That took a run off the scoreboard for Washington and briefly looked like it would be a moot point after Adams struck out — a strikeout that came after Scherzer got him with a little pitch clock subterfuge.

Instead, it was the precursor to disaster. An RBI groundout, single and home run helped chase the veteran starter in what would become an eight-run inning for the Nats. Scherzer’s final line included seven runs allowed, but a pair of errors from shortshop Luis Guillorme ensured those were unearned.