This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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"Scherzer allowed five homers on more than 1800 sliders from 2019 through 2022. He’s allowed nine this year on 306 sliders. Eyeballing the Rorschachs at Baseball Savant, Scherzer seems to be getting his slider up in the zone more rather than burying it down and away, and combined with the loss in velocity, the pitch is just sitting there. Scherzer has allowed 29 barrels this year, and his barrel rate is in the bottom 15% of all qualified pitchers. Scherzer’s walk rate is his highest in a full season since 2017, his strikeout rate his lowest since 2011.
"All this is to say that the Rangers aren’t trading for Scherzer’s old Strat cards, but for a pitcher who is probably more a #3 than a #1, with both performance and health risk."
