Jamie Moyer, Owner of Max Scherzer

(This was posted over at Big Head's blog - mizzourah.net - but I figured I'd throw it over here for some Scherzer analysis and Kansas hatin'. Also, if you want to hear Big Head's thoughts on the Tigers' upcoming football season click here and go to the 20 minute mark)

Last week's column about Max Scherzer may have over-hyped him a bit, but how could anyone not be excited about his 13 up, 13 down debut? Monday night was his first start as a Major Leaguer and it did not go well. He was throwing hard, but it seemed like none of his offspeed pitches went for strikes, and the ones that did were base hits. His line was 4 innings, 5 runs (2 earned), 7 hits, 2 walks, 5 K's. A quick scouting report after watching him on tv: I love the fastball (who doesn't love 98-100 mph though?), and he seemed composed after giving up some runs. The worst part of his night was that he screwed around with Jamie Moyer and gave up two hits to the 40-something year old lefty. Jamie Moyer knows what 80 mph pitches look like...don't throw that to him! Also, it would help if Max didn't have a guy behind him with the last name "Drew," since that's never good. Stephen made a bad error on a grounder in the 3rd. To his credit, at least he was out there, J.D. would have been getting an MRI on his purse.

It's not certain that the D'Backs will keep Scherzer in the rotation, since Doug Davis is coming back soon from the DL (foightin' cancah!). Either way, he's got to stay up with the big club, since he's an equally useful weapon out of the pen.

On the Mizzou front, they are now 31-16 overall after winning two of three vs. K-State. Before that the Tigers dropped six out of seven (including five in a row). It's been real yucky to say the least for Mizzou as of late.

Up next is some mid-week action vs. Creighton (tonight) and extra Mo' State (Wed), followed by the weekend at Kansas.

I was going to end it there, but I wanted to see if the KU baseball team follows the lead of their hoops and football programs by playing weak non-conference schedules. Yes, yes they do - 5 game sets vs. both Hawaii-Hilo (huh?) and North Dakota State. Throw in a LeMoyne, Tabor, Benedictine, and St. Mary (I did not make any of those schools up) and the mighty Jayhawks are 29-22. What a bunch of clowns.