Max Scherzer Quotes

You feel like a stud out there when people swing and miss. As I've gotten older, I've preached to our young guys that strikeouts are sexy, but outs are outs, man, no matter how you get them. It's a lot cooler for me pitching in the seventh or eighth inning than it is going 5 1/3. Your manager likes it a lot more, too.

I was never a strikeout pitcher. Why should I throw eight or nine balls to get a man out when I got away with three or four?

All I really try to do is whatever hitter gets in there, I just try to get him out in as few pitches as possible.

If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.

I just try to make the pitcher work.

Yeah, strikeouts just kind of happen. It's not something I'm trying to do, I'm just trying to get outs as fast as possible.

The only time I really try for a strikeout is when I'm in a jam. If the bases are loaded with none out, for example, then I'll go for a strikeout. But most of the time I try to throw to spots. I try to get them to pop up or ground out. On a strikeout I might have to throw five or six pitches, sometimes more if there are foul-offs. That tires me. So I just try to get outs. That's what counts - outs. You win with outs, not strikeouts.

If you can get an out on one pitch, take it. Let the strikeouts come on the outstanding pitches. Winning is the big thing. If you throw a lot of pitches, before you know it, your arm is gone.

Hitting is business. With two strikes you really protect that plate.

When a batter swings and I see his knees move, I can tell just what his weaknesses are then I just put the ball where I know he can't hit it.

In my own case I have frequently faced the pitcher when I had no desire whatever to hit. I wanted to get a base on balls.

Anybody's best pitch is the one the batters ain't hitting that day.

My pitching philosophy is simple - keep the ball way from the bat.

I know when I get to 0-2, 1-2, when I'm ahead in the count, that I hold a distinct advantage over every single hitter. I have so many options because I don't have to work within the strike zone anymore.

Strikeouts are something that just happen. You don't go for strikeouts, because your pitch count gets too high. When you do get that opportunity, you have to put them away with whatever is working that day.

I don't care how you get the outs. It doesn't matter to me how bad it looks, how good it looks, how many strikeouts you have. None of that stuff matters as long as you get the outs.

I'm not trying to throw six or seven pitches just to be able to strike you out. I'm trying to do it in three or four. It's the homework and the process between starts that I really focus on to help me do that.

I think my job is to keep the ball down. I always say I try to go out there and get early contact, and strikeouts just seem to happen.

I don't try for strikeouts, but batters just swing and miss. I'd exchange strikeouts for more innings. As a starter, my job is to go deep into the game. When you get strikeouts, you throw a lot of pitches and sometimes you come out early.

There's no easier pitch to hit than a splitter that doesn't do anything.

Ken Holtzman could pitch a game in ninety minutes. Wouldn't throw a breaking ball. And he had a great breaking ball.

Your most precious possessions on offense are your twenty-seven outs.

Everybody in the league knew I had trouble with the inside pitch. I got away with it only because the great majority of pitchers were afraid of making a mistake in that spot. The threat of power is one of the best weapons you have in the batter's box.

If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.

If there's a runner on third with less than two outs, I clearly do not want to strike out.