Don't mess with Mad Max, plus other baseball stuff
Hyper-competitive Max Scherzer delivered another signature moment in his career twilight
Our Town’s Max Scherzer still some fuel left in the tank at the age of 41, especially when it comes to postseason play.
His Hall of Fame competitiveness allows him to squeeze just a bit more out of his shoulder and elbow.
So, no, Max Scherzer did not want to come out of Thursday night’s ALCS game against the Seattle Mariners. When Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider headed toward the mound in the fifth inning, Scherzer’s intensity was on full display.
“I’m good!” Scherzer barked. “Let’s go!”
Schneider returned to the dugout and Scherzer escaped the inning. Toronto went on to win 8-2, with Scherzer holding the M’s to two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
“It was awesome. I thought he was going to kill me,” Schneider said. “He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out. And it’s not fake. That’s the thing. It’s not fake. He has this ‘Mad Max’ persona, but he backed it up tonight.”
After calming down, Scherzer reflected on that moment.
“It was just a situation,” he said. “I was going through it in my head. I understood where the game state was, knew how I wanted to attack, and then all of a sudden, I saw Schneider coming out and I kind of went, ‘Whoa, whoa, I’m not coming out of the ballgame.’ I felt too good. And so we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ballgame, just with some other words involved.”
And his legend grew.
THE TROUBLE WITH LONG-TERM DEALS
Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper just turned 33. He has six years remaining on his 13-year, $330 million contract. He has played a LOT of baseball, and his body joints are piling up mileage.
While the Cardinals would love to have an established hitter with an .844 OPS in the middle of their batting order, Harper’s 2025 number was his lowest since 2016.
While Harper hasn’t suffered Mike Trout-level statistical regression, he is not the megastar he was in his 20s.
“He’s still a quality player,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “He’s still an All-Star-caliber player. He didn’t have an elite season like he’s had in the past. I guess we only find out if he becomes elite or he continues to be good.”
Merely good may not be good enough. The Phillies have committed massive dollars to an aging team core, so the franchise will either have to spend its way out of that dilemma or accept that a reset is coming.
THE SAN DIEGO ZOO
All is not well with the Padres. In the wake of owner Peter Seidler’s death, there has been organization upheaval. Mike Shildt’s “retirement” as manager was just another example of that.
General manager A.J. Preller’s uncertain status is another sign of trouble.
Writing for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin offered this assessment:
Preller’s collection of high-priced, marquee players has helped energize a previously dormant market, transforming the team into a sellout machine while cementing Petco Park as one of baseball’s premier destinations. In the last two years, Preller and Shildt oversaw the first pair of consecutive 90-win seasons in team history, a departure for a franchise that had largely been defined by losing. Yet, Preller’s future remains uncertain as he approaches the final year of his current deal.
His situation stands in contrast to another leader of the franchise. In 2024, CEO Erik Greupner, who already held a small stake in the team, quietly received a multi-year extension while working under interim control person Eric Kutsenda, according to multiple people inside and outside the organization. Greupner, like Preller, had already been extended by late owner Peter Seidler through the 2026 season. Greupner’s equity in the club and his latest extension, which was struck during a year of 93 wins and record attendance, had not been previously reported.
Over the last two years, team sources said, employees throughout the organization noticed increasing tension between Preller and Greupner, whose influence has grown. Some point to the fact that, despite stylistic and personality differences, the long-tenured executives have together presided over a marketable product on and off the field.
That’s something to keep an eye on this winter.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while Missouri tries to muster an emphatic response to its Alabama loss at Auburn:
Has Joel Hofer located the reset button to restore his factory settings?
Was that Joe Flacco-Aaron Rodgers showdown live Thursday night, or a replay from earlier this century?
Did the Milwaukee Brewers’ team bus turn into a pumpkin en route to Chavez Ravine?
TALKIN’ BASEBALL
Here is what folks have been writing about postseason play:
Albert Burneko, The Defector: “Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-7 across the first two games of the ALCS, as his Blue Jays fell into an 0-2 hole at home against the Seattle Mariners. He reached base only once in those two games, an eighth-inning walk in Game 2 with Toronto already down by seven runs; he ended the inning on third. That is not going to do it. Vladito was the hottest bat of the divisional round, bashing the Yankees to the tune of a 1.609 OPS and three homers in four games. Toronto may not need quite that level of cartoonish production from him to stay afloat against the Mariners, but the job is certainly easier if the team’s best hitter is, well, hitting. To wit: The beefy lad seems to have awakened on the cross-continental flight before Wednesday night’s Game 3, and now the Blue Jays have a pulse.”
Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “The Los Angeles Dodgers were at a breaking point in September. Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one pitch away from throwing a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles, and they somehow still lost. They lost two of three games to Arizona, were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and lost two of three games to the Orioles in a 10-day span. The season was unraveling, the San Diego Padres were closing in, and panicking was starting to settle in. Funny what a difference five weeks makes. On a gorgeous Thursday evening in Los Angeles, the Dodgers stifled the Milwaukee Brewers yet again, with a 3-1 win in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series and are one victory away from a sweep and return trip to the World Series. It’s over. The Dodgers know it. The Brewers know it.”
Michael Baumann, FanGraphs: “For what it’s worth, the Brewers’ seat-of-the-pants pitching approach has been pretty solid so far this series. The Dodgers scored 5.1 runs per game this regular season, the highest mark among NL teams, and the Brewers have held them to 10 runs (nine earned) over three games. But every year we wonder if the Brewers can scratch out enough offense to capitalize on their pitching, and every year it’s the same old song. They’ve scored one run in each of the three games of the NLCS; by the time [Jacob] Misiorowski entered in the bottom of the first, the Brewers had already allowed as many runs as their offense has been capable of scoring in a game this series. Miz could’ve pumped heat and conjured unhittable curveballs until New Year’s Eve and it wouldn’t have mattered. That ill-timed offensive outage will, once again, be the first line of the Brewers’ obituary. Unless they somehow defy the odds and come down from 3-0, in which case, feel free to shove this back in my face when Fever Pitch 2 comes out.”
WORDS TO LIVE BY
“The more you can learn, the faster you learn, that’s the one competitive advantage that will never go away. How you adjust from things you messed up.”
Schneider, reflecting on his managerial approach earlier this season.