Dodgers: Max Scherzer Talks Fan Criticism in the Wake of Past Dead Arm Comments
When the Dodgers swung a deal to trade for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, they were supposed to be the saviors to Los Angeles’ season. While the team did fall short in the divisional race, both Scherzer and Turner were key contributors. Turner helped spark an otherwise inconsistent offense while the team won all 11 of Mad Max’s starts.
However, both players weren’t able to fully replicate their regular-season success in the playoffs. Turner was unlike himself and couldn’t get on base often. Scherzer on the other hand seemingly ran out of gas in the NLCS. He only lasted 4 1/3 innings before Dave Roberts decided to pull him and when it came time for him to start in game 6 of the series, he was unable to go as he was experiencing a dead arm.
The Dodgers, of course, had to push Walker Buehler on short rest and were knocked out of the playoffs.
Scherzer later came out and pointed out a lower workload with LA was an issue, saying it didn’t prepare him much for what was needed in the postseason. Of course, that didn’t go well with Dodgers fans who had mixed feelings about that comment, especially since Max departed via free agency and signed with the New York Mets.
AM570LASports reporter David Vassegh reminded fans of some information on why the Dodgers did limit Scherzer down the stretch.
It’s interesting how #MaxScherzer won’t acknowledge his tender right hamstring being a substantial reason why #Dodgers were so cautious with him down the stretch of the regular season.
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) December 31, 2021
While Scherzer has never mentioned such an injury since it initially happened, he did recently speak about the situation with Jorge Castillo of the LA Times and how he doesn’t blame the sentiment towards him.
“For Dodger fans to be upset with me, for me to get dead arm like that, hey, that’s fair game. Look, you play with L.A., you’re here to win the World Series. I got that. I was OK with that and for fans to be upset for my dead arm, that’s fair. I can live with that.”
The once-needed savior couldn’t help deliver another World Series title. His inability to pitch in game 6 wasn’t the team’s only reason for falling to the eventual World Series Champions, the Atlanta Braves, as the offense couldn’t produce consistently. However, after being given high standards by fans for what he was able to do during the end of the season, they expected more out of one of the best in the game.
Max Scherzer Blames Dodgers for Dead Arm, Did LA Mishandle Max? Truth About Max’s Dead Arm in LA
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Man it’s a good thing Drrrrrrr didn’t pitch him in relief on short rest or anything like that!!!
Or use Burns and Souza off the bench in a big moment..
Or saving Pujols for the ” BIG Moment” that never comes because he saved Pujols for that moment…
It’s my opinion that Sherzer had no intention of staying in LA and had no intention of demanding to be used in the manner he spoke, to get ready for the playoffs, but accepted that Roberts will and did limit him which benefitted Sherzer by being healthy for free agency. I think his dead arm was more of the sense that the Dodgers were dead and he was having as little as possible of it. and he succeeded.
You’re saying he refused to pitch game 6? Makes no sense
Do you believe it to be unconsiderable? Do you believe it impossible for a player of his status to quit an obvious defeat to safeguard his health to ensure his next contract? If you do on both, this is one of the problems with fans with too much optimism. Do you believe the Astros cheated? If yes, how can you not believe a player couldn’t fake a dead arm to not play.
Possible doesn’t mean true. I’m seeing a lot of fans across the internet say this as fact and I’m wondering where it’s coming from suddenly.
oh if the players could only actually say what they actually thought of daves moves would be interesting.
Yup. This isn’t the first time players had to bite their tongue > 2019 NLDS vs Washington
scherzers hedging around the truth. he doesnt actually want to come out and say he really feels and upset the apple cart. right? well hes talking about it for weeks now. even at the press conference in new york. the longer dave is around the more the dodgers organization is going to be loathed and despised around the league. its hard to respect an organization that doesnt respect the game by keeping that guy around. think about it.
Yes sir Mike, and Scherz still handled it with class. Such an easy replacement to drop Fife. Maybe with any luck Pujols will be hired as a player manager type, or better yet even let Geren make the decisions and keep him on. The only thing that worries me is Geren maybe a carbon copy of Fife and once the Mets saw that he’s a Drrrrrrr clone they said “SEE YA”. I’m strongly pushing for Ethier to get involved with the team hopefully this year in a minors role etc. Prime him for 23 or 24 when the Dodgers can make a push again. Let’s hope it’s not another 32 years before they pull out another one.
All it takes is a google search to find video of Scherzer enthusiastically saying [in regards to pitching in relief in the post season], I’m ready to do whatever is needed, I’ve done it before, and I’ve told Davy use me however you need me. Davy gets criticized if he rests his guys too much, uses his guys too much, some people just hate Davy no matter what he does. They said Jansen was his son, the Dodgers should release him, Bellinger was his son, he should be sent to the minors, Lux was worthless, he should have been traded. Nobody gives him credit for not giving up on his players when they bounce back, they think they are smarter than the Dodger brain trust, who are only the smartest and most successful organization in baseball during the Roberts/Friedman regime.
its not hate. dave is too stupid to manage the team and its obvious based on his track record hes proven that he cant think straight and he falls apart in the postseason . and spme of us are smarter than the dodgers braintrust. alot smarter. do you think that just because they have all the money that it supposedly equates to developed intelligence necessarily jackson?
Mike, so smart he pitches to the hottest hitter in baseball Riley, with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1st base open. Yep, Brilliant….
he’s a hell-of-a-lot smarter than you – that’s for sure!
Roberts is clearly not good at handling pitchers and the bullpen, he has proven that in the post-season. It’s not a surprise, before the Dodgers hired him he had zero experience as a major league manager.
He had no experience but now he has 6 and still repeats the same mistakes
the dodgers had their best team of all time this year and if they just had a little bit of manuevering ability winning shouldve been sweet and easy with the right general in charge. regardless of whatever issues were going on they had to play with shame and disgrace and be fools chasing the giants on a maybe they might catch them for the division. anybody with three quarters of a brain couldve easily noticed how tired how a number of their key players were.and reasoned out the load was too much on the pitching staff. unless they were all delusional and nobody noticed it however glaring it was. i found it hard to miss. of course. if i was managing or running a club all the other teams would be running for the hills if they had to bet their fortunes on beating my manuevering abilities. as long as they didnt cheat which you cant ever discount because they might. they usually do unless everybodys watching when somebody says that. then they might not unless they ihink they can get away with it. which is often. especially when they band together to screw everybody out of all their money. if they all keyed in on me i might not win. but just on the playing knowledge and universal knowledge future of the human race space and aliens they arent in range of my level yet.
But he stole a base Scott, and he was a HOF bench player give him a break…
If you think you know more than Kasten and Friedman what is best for the Dodgers you are seriously deluded. They won 106 games, with a team decimated all year with injuries, I think less than 10 teams in the history of baseball have won as many games. And the year before they won the World Series. I don’t want to hear about how much money they spent, subtract Bauer, who was off the team after July, Betts who was hobbled most of the year, then out for 6 weeks in the middle of the season, Bellinger who had no spring training, then broke his leg the first week of the season and never got it going, losing Seager, Pollock, and Lux just when all three were at their hottest, Muncy for the entire post season, May for most of the season, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I don’t agree with all of Robert’s moves, of course after the fact its a lot easier to say why play guys like Raley, Reks and Souza, who were all killing it at AAA and obvious choices for a shot at the majors to fill in for injured players but failed, but good luck finding a manager who has been in the world series 3 out of the last 5 years.
i can tell by the way youre talking jackson that you cant play. kasten and friedman have been botching up payroll since deep into the last decade because of bad contracts. and 106 wins means nothing ifn youre gonna drive the team into the ground chasing the giants for an objective that has little to no value. the goal is to win the title. and sure the team was messed up all year. but they were stocked with superstars and decided to waste their forces chasing frisco on a well maybe theyll catch them when frisco was hot and l.a. was depleted. the dodgers had a huge wildcard lead and if they had gathered their forces and regrouped and youd have to be an idiot not to see how dave runs a pitckhing staff. or what a baffoon looks like in october when theres more pressure. but im not surprised by guys like you jackson. competitors like me depend on guys like you foran easy kill in sporting contests of actual skill and wit.
From the way you write and think, it appears you are about 13-15 years old. When I was that age, I also thought if I managed the team, I’d for sure win more games than the professionals, that I was smarter and better than they were. With maturity comes wisdom….. well not always…. but there’s a chance.
Jackson there’s a manager sitting at home who actually won 3 out of 5 years once and he’d win every year with this amount of talent even the 2021 team with all its injuries
Exactly.
spot on Jackson! These so-called fans are nothing but haters!
its not hate joe. some of us just get tired of seeing the dodgers dog it want a new manager whos not an automatic loser.
He has been having late season fatigue injuries the last 3 or 4 seasons. The Nats would pull him earlier than normal late in the regular season to leg him out. I believe the situation was bound to happen with being short on starters, wearing out the bullpen to make it up, and Max in savior mode during the long run to win the division. I think that run for the division hurt the entire team. Max always has argued with managers with the Nats to keep him in and he did with the Dodgers as well. In fact the players on the team that performed better in the post season by and large had breaks due to injuries those last 50 games.
The desperation to win division titles shows the dodgers insecurities about postseason play. They could’ve played it smart and accepted the wild card early on but they know they stink in October and desperately wanted to avoid a one off. Ended up costing them later against a team who waltzed into the playoffs
The should have been Dynasty Don……Sad to re visit the what if’s…..
Scherzer should have manned up and said he was less then 100% but given the significance of the game give it the best he could can y ou imagine. Kerssh wussying out like that in a similar circumstances ?? This from one of the supposed toughest guys in BB!! What a gamer !!! Could there have been a little stratising here? As in no sense taking any chance screwing up the more likely better contract he would get elsewhere . What was the reputed low ball the Dodgers we’re offering? Chicken S*** Scherzer. Dodgers brass was not fooled
O
thank God that Max took the offer from the Mets. Can’t wait til the Dodgers play the Mets at the Ravine!!
if you look between the lines on scherzers comments one might notice part of what hes saying isnt making a whole lot of sense. hes saying the dodgers overcooked his arm which is true. but hes deflecting the blame with subterfuge in a kind of code speech to read between the lines that hes blaming the dodgers or dave but he doesnt just want to come out and say it. and good luck trying to get him to. there will be plausible denial on his part. the players around the baseball might start talking though and become more motivated to stick it to l.a.as long as dave is around. its pure speculation. but thats the way it looks to me at this point.
well when i was 13 or 15 jackson i didnt think that way. i was more of a greenhorn like you and dave. but now that im 58 i have tons of knowledge and the more you were around me the less assumptions you might make depending upon where your intelligence range actually is versus where your mind actually thinks it is which is in two very different places. maybe you should go look for some advanced aliens off planet to get within my range. because if you think old davey is capable of managing with any skill then that can only mean youre reasoning abilities arent up to speed. in 2016 dave drove kenley into the ground in october. in 2017 darvish was looking confused on the mound in game 7 of the fall classic and i wouldve pulled him before he gave up those runs. dave was so slowhe let darvish giveup 5? runs before he pulled him. then said afterwards that’it all happened so fast!’ thats when i wouldve fired his ass so fast the door wouldve hit him in the ass on the way out.then there was 2019 vs washington and the idiot put clayton in a spot the last game and another pitcher in the wrong situations they werent prepared to pitch in and they gave it up. and he continuously left clayton in games to give up multiple homeruns. in 2017 he let kershaw give up 4 home runs in one game. that mightve happened twice in 17. but once for sure in the world series. if my pitchers slumping im going to pull him from the game. he wore the team out in 16 17 18 19 almost in 2020 and he really screwed the team over bigtime in 2021. im fed up with dave roberts. i was patient until this recent debacle but he regressed and even got worse. hes a title killer guaranteed to piledrive his team into the ground. and the only reason hes lasted this long is because the league has mandated that minorities be hired. his employment has nothing to do with daves ability since dave has none.hes so stupid theres no way hes going to learn enough to manage a big league team in time to be of any use. and if youre backing him that means your pretty fkng dumb. and i have to burn up energy trying to explain things to an idiot like you and youre likely so dumb even thats probably a waste of time anyway.
You are probably right. Max is a glory and money hound and wanted the trade to the Dodgers, with 10 and 5 he got to call the team. So he picked the probable favorite to win the WS, to be in the best position to negotiate his 2022 contract. He is a bulldog, but he ran out of gas trying for the big headline. It took the Mets to overpay even after he hit the wall a couple weeks early. I think older pitchers in general suffered burnout in 21 after the short season in 20 threw their training schedules out of whack. I understand Keisha’s sucking it up in the playoffs was admirable, but that led to some unhappy endings too.
He blamed the dead arm on getting extra rest. Right.
The Nationals and Dodgers medical staff and trainers have the most knowledge of the 38 year old’s value over the next few years.
The Mets have the least knowledge, so they offered him the most money.
Funny how high taxes when playing for the Mets isn’t mentioned when this free agent leaves LA.
Time will tell how many innings he has left in that dead arm.
Having just read these comments I would guess many of them were written by younger fans(?) Want to learn more of real Dodgers baseball? Read or ask others about the Alston and Lasorda eras. If you’re going to manage the team what you learn may be very helpful.
i remember tommy well. i liked the guy but he managed about daves speed in a more forgiving era knowledgewise.one time he had a 15 or 20 run lead and he left his pitcher in too long and they lost the game. but nobody knew anything back then. some slight improvement in this era.iom not sure you or jackson are much on brains if you thought tommy was any good at managing. he was good at talking.
Hey brainiac, the largest lead ever blown in major league history was 12 runs, and not the Dodgers. You live in a fantasyland where you are self-deluded that you are smart, but anybody reading your posts can see you are clueless.
just the opposite. its you who is self deluded and clueless. youre so ridiculously dumb youre still talking to me. did you ever consider that you should just end the conversation?
Some of these commenters can’t even compose a coherent sentence and yet we’re supposed to believe they know more about running/managing a team than Kasten, Friedman & Roberts?
Absolute buffoonery.
I’ve always liked Roberts myself, from the time he played for us and now as our manager. Have some of his moves backfired? That would be a “yes”. Can you show me another manager who has not had the same thing happen to them? We don’t even need to answer that. There are those of us on here who dislike Dave who are obviously passionate about the Dodgers, but you could remember he is our guy. Win or lose, these are our guys.