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Max Scherzer‘s impressive reign of terror over opposing lineups finally came to an end Saturday as the Texas Rangers handed him his first loss of the season.

The Detroit Tigers ace lasted six innings, allowing eight hits, four earned runs and two walks while striking out six in the 7-1 loss to the Rangers. 

As ESPN Stats & Info points out, Scherzer had an opportunity to become the first pitcher in MLB history to achieve a 14-0 record before the All-Star break:

Scherzer opened up the season with a nearly unprecedented run of victories, tallying an incredible 13-0 record to start the year. According to CBS Sports, he is just the fourth pitcher to start 13-0 or better since 1920. Roger Clemens was the last to accomplish the feat when he started 14-0 in 1986. 

Scherzer got off to a good start against the Rangers, making it through the first three innings without allowing a run. However, Texas would finally get to him in the fourth frame. 

A.J. Pierzynski got things started when he drove Nelson Cruz home with a sacrifice fly. Mitch Moreland’s two-run homer in the same inning would drive the lead up to 3-0 for the Rangers. 

The Tigers would provide their star pitcher with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning as Hernan Perez drove in Jhonny Peralta off a single to center field. However, Pierzynski would strike again in the fifth inning, hitting a double to bring Leonys Martin home to extend the lead to 4-1. 

Mad Max would ultimately leave the game after pitching six innings with a pitch count of 122.

Scherzer needed the Tigers lineup to rally in the final four innings to keep his streak alive. Derek Holland, Joakim Soria and Neal Cotts teamed up on the mound to make sure that wouldn’t happen. 

The Rangers would ultimately drive the lead up to 7-1 with an Adrian Beltre homer in the ninth.

Disappointing as the loss may be, Scherzer still has plenty left to accomplish this season. He’s currently tied for the major league lead at 13 wins with Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Moore, who stands at 13-3 on the season.

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The starting pitchers for the 2013 All-Star game have not yet been announced, but it’s clear that there are a few pitchers who deserve to start.

Pitchers who deserve to start are not only having great years, but stand out in one or more particular categories.

Which pitchers deserve to start? Read on to find out. 

Patrick Corbin

Corbin is not a household name, but he still deserves a chance to start. The 23-year-old has a 10-1 record, with a 2.40 ERA and a dazzling 0.98 WHIP.

He has the best winning percentage in the NL, while also boasting the fifth-best ERA. 

He’s unheralded to be sure, and he made his debut a little over a year ago. But he has four elite pitches and has been the most consistent pitcher in the NL.

The country needs to be introduced to Corbin, and there is no better place than on the mound in the first inning of the All-Star game.

Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw is leading the NL in most major pitching categories. He has the best ERA at 1.89, and has pitched the most innings, at 138.1.

He is second in the league in strikeouts with 129 and has the best WHIP, at 0.90.

The 8-5 record isn’t pretty, but that’s mostly due to a lack of run support.

On pure numbers, Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball. That fact alone is enough to give him the starting gig.

Kershaw has said all the right things about the starting job, including telling FoxSports.com that Matt Harvey deserves the start: “There’s no reason, especially if it’s in New York, that he shouldn’t start. That’s what the fans will want. I’ve got no problem with that.”

While the humility is endearing, Kershaw is the one who deserves the start. He simply has the best numbers. 

Max Scherzer

Scherzer is putting up terrific numbers this year. He has a 13-0 record, with a 3.06 ERA, 146 strikeouts and a batting average against of .200.

The fact that he hasn’t lost all year makes him worthy of taking the hill as the starter. It also doesn’t hurt that his every day manager, Jim Leyland, will be coaching the AL squad.

Scherzer‘s fantastic start deserves to be rewarded. It’s not often that a pitcher logs so many important innings for a contender and simply does not lose.

He’s one of the most valuable pitchers in baseball and should be rewarded with the start. 

Mariano Rivera

Yes, choosing Mariano Rivera would be an unconventional choice. The legendary closer is used to starting the ninth inning, not the first.

But Rivera is retiring at the end of the season, and the greatest closer who ever lived deserves a fitting send-off. 

If he is installed as the AL closer, there is no guarantee that he pitches in the bottom of the ninth. Jim Leyland will give him every chance to pitch, but if the American League is losing badly in the eighth, his appearance will lose its luster. 

Starting him is undoubtedly sentimental, but it ensures the legend can end his All-Star career with the pomp and circumstance it deserves. 

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Make it an even dozen for Max Scherzer, and some history on the side.

The Detroit Tigers right-hander picked up another win on Friday night, pitching seven innings and allowing three earned runs in a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. That makes Scherzer a perfect 12-0 on the season.

Now, us nerds know that a pitcher’s win-loss record is hardly the best indicator of how well (or not well) he’s pitched. But Scherzer’s 12-0 start to the season still has a certain “Hey, cool!” factor to it, as it’s not every day you see a pitcher start a season with a record like that.

Or every quarter-century, for that matter. Before Scherzer, the last pitcher to start a season 12-0 was Roger Clemens in 1986.

And according to Baseball-Reference.com, there have been only four other cases since 1916 of pitchers beginning the season with a record of 12-0 or better as a starter: Eddie Cicotte in 1919*, Johnny Allen in 1937, Dave McNally in 1969 and Ron Guidry in 1978.

Scherzer’s in a pretty exclusive club with his 12-0 record, but we naturally have to inquire about the path that led him there. Compared to the other guys, was it harder or easier for Scherzer to get to 12-0?

Let’s discuss.

*Cicotte did pick up a loss early in the 1919 season, but it was as a reliever. As a starter, he went unbeaten until the middle of June.

How Many Starts Did it Take?

We’re going to be kicking around a few notions in this piece, and here’s Notion No. 1: A longer road to 12-0 is a more perilous road to 12-0.

Makes sense, right? The more starts a pitcher has to make to get to 12-0, the more likely it is that he’s going to run into trouble and have his unbeaten streak snapped.

Take Scherzer, for example. His record is 12-0, but he’s made 16 starts on the season. Four of those no-decisions could have ended up as L’s had things gone differently. 

So the difficulty of his road to 12-0 is already looking pretty good. It looks even better in light of the other five guys in the club.

Of the five other guys, only three got to 12-0 in fewer starts than Scherzer. Another guy (Allen) got there in just as many starts as he did.

Only McNally took longer than Scherzer and Allen to get to 12-0, and he took a dog’s age to get there. He was darn lucky along the way, too, as five of his nine no-decisions saw him pitch fewer than five innings. He pitched fewer than four innings in four of those.

It’s hard to imagine anyone ever taking more than 21 starts to get to 12-0, so McNally is probably going to wear the “Most Perilous Road to 12-0” hat forever and ever. But in light of the other guys in the 12-0 club, Scherzer hardly had it easy getting there.

That’s also true if we take home ballparks into consideration.

Liking That Home Cooking?

Here’s Notion No. 2: A pitcher who has a hitter-friendly home ballpark is going to have a harder time getting to 12-0.

This should also make sense. Pitchers are going to start at their home ballpark more often than anywhere else, and they stand a greater chance of racking up losses if their home park is friendlier to hitters than it is to pitchers.

Fortunately for us, Baseball-Reference.com keeps track of “Pitching Park Factors” for every ballpark throughout history. A PPF of 100 is neutral, while anything under that favors pitchers and anything over that favors hitters.

Here’s a look at how many home starts our six guys made on their way to 12-0, how many wins they racked up at home and the PPF for their home ballpark that year.

Cicotte, Allen, McNally and Guidry all made their homes at ballparks that were friendly to pitchers. Clemens made his home at a park that was neutral.

But Scherzer, on the other hand…

I’m guessing that some out there might still think of Comerica Park as a pitchers’ park because of how it played earlier in its history. But that ship sailed when the fences were moved in about a decade ago, and the last few years have season the Tigers’ digs become a hitting haven. Hence the 105 PPF.

If that’s not enough to convince you, Comerica is the third-best offensive park in the majors in 2013 by ESPN.com’s reckoning.

Scherzer has basically made the bulk of his starts in a bandbox, and it hasn’t been easy for him. He may be a perfect 8-0 at home, but he has a 4.01 ERA at Comerica this season compared to a sub-2.00 ERA on the road.

But if Scherzer has all those wins at home and a high ERA at home, then that means…

Yup, he’s getting a lot of run support. And not just at home, either.

How’s Your Run Support?

And now for Notion No. 3: A pitcher who gets less run support is going to have a harder time getting to 12-0.

It’s my duty as a nerd to take this moment to wag my finger at the idea of the win itself, as it’s downright silly to credit one guy with an overall team accomplishment. Pitchers can do a lot to help their teams win, yes, but they’re only “winners” if their guys come through with some runs.

But I digress. Let’s go to the table for this section, which shows the number of runs per start our pitchers got during their journeys to 12-0 compared to how many runs their teams were averaging.

I should note that the run support figures are not per 27 outs, a la Baseball-Reference.com’s usual standard. Just per game, which is ordinarily not the best way to go about such things. But the records for Cicotte and Allen aren’t complete enough to calculate run support per 27 outs, so sue me.

At any rate, the numbers in the table shouldn’t surprise you. The only starter to begin 12-0 who wasn’t getting run support better than his team’s usual output was Cicotte in 1919. He had an ERA in the low 1.00s at the time he got his 12th victory as a starter, and he absolutely needed it.

As for Scherzer, it says a lot that the Tigers scored six runs for him on Friday night and his average run support went down. He indeed has been getting a ton of support from Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and the rest of the boys this year.

But while Scherzer’s usual run support looks high on its own, it pales in comparison when placed against the kind of run support Allen and Clemens were getting on their roads to 12-0. Both the 1937 Indians and 1986 Red Sox were strong offensive clubs, but they basically turned into the 1927 Yankees when Allen and Clemens were on the mound.

Has Scherzer had it easy compared to all other pitchers in 2013? Yes.

Has he had it easy compared to the other guys since 1916 to start 12-0? Not quite.

This is also true in terms of the competition he’s faced. 

Picking on People Your Own Size?

Now for Notion No. 4: The more tough offensive teams a pitcher faces, the harder it’s going to be for him to get to 12-0.

Indeed, but this is where things get tricky. In a long enough streak of starts, a pitcher is going to face the same team multiple times. Each time he does, odds are the team isn’t going to be performing the same as it was the last time he saw it.

So I had to cheat a little bit to come up with the following numbers. I used season-long runs-per-game averages for each pitcher’s opponents during his streak, and I also used the season-long runs-per-game average for the whole league. Not perfect, but it’ll have to do.

*Note: “League” here is American League, not all of Major League Baseball. All six of these guys were/are AL pitchers, and Scherzer hasn’t made a start against a National League club yet.

I’ll stop once again to acknowledge the strings attached to this data, but none of our six guys really had it “difficult” in terms of facing only the hard-hitting teams in the league time after time. That’s not the least bit surprising, as we probably wouldn’t be sitting here talking about them if they had been.

But relative to the other guys, you can see that Scherzer has had it tough this year. With the exception of his own team, he’s had to face each of the top run-scoring teams in the American League: Boston, Baltimore and Oakland. But amazingly, he hasn’t yet faced the second-worst run-scoring team in the league: the Chicago White Sox.

You can also see that Scherzer has only racked up six wins against below average-offensive clubs—those being teams with R/G outputs below league average. Somehow, he failed to collect wins in starts against Seattle and Houston. The Mariners are the worst-scoring team in the AL, and the Astros are the fourth-worst-scoring team in the AL.

So Scherzer has faced some decent competition, and he hasn’t racked up the bulk of his wins against subpar offensive teams. Add that to his relatively long journey to 12-0, his tough home ballpark and his relatively modest run support, and his road to 12-0 is looking like a tough one.

But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch.

Any Cheap Wins in There?

Lastly, here’s Notion No. 5: A pitcher who actually has to earn his wins is going to have a harder time getting to 12-0.

For example, a pitcher who wins 12 starts in which he went eight innings and allowed no more than two earned runs in each one clearly had a better stretch than a pitcher who had a couple five-inning stinkers that turned into wins, right?

Of course. And fortunately for us, there is such a thing as a cheap win, and it’s a simple concept. Any win earned in an outing that wasn’t a quality start—at least six innings, no more than three earned runs—is a cheap win.

Here’s a look at how many cheap wins our six guys racked up on their roads to 12-0.

There’s your catch. Three of Scherzer’s 12 wins have been of the cheap variety, and that’s one more than any of the other five guys earned on their way to 12-0.

Scherzer’s first cheap win came in his first start when he lasted only five innings and gave up four earned runs against the Yankees. The next came on April 24 against the Royals, in which he gave up five earned runs in five innings. The third happened on May 10 when he gave up four earned in eight innings against the Indians.

Had Scherzer not gotten his usual run support in those games, he’s not 12-0 right now, and you and I are doing other things with our time.

This is not to bring this conversation to a screeching halt by saying that Scherzer’s road to 12-0 has been decidedly easy. It hasn’t been, and him getting there is still a darn cool achievement.

This is just as good a sign as any that he’s lucky to be where he is. As impressive as it looks on paper, Scherzer’s win-loss record doesn’t tell the whole story.

Note: All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Max Scherzer‘s reign of terror across Major League Baseball cannot be stopped.

The Detroit Tigers right-hander brought his record to 12-0 on the season Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, as Scherzer got the win in Detroit’s 6-3 victory at Tropicana Field. Scherzer went seven strong innings, spraying just four hits and three earned runs while fanning nine Rays hitters.

As Sports Illustrated’s MLB Twitter account noted, Scherzer became the first pitcher to start a season 12-0 in over a quarter century. Roger Clemens’ legendary 1986 season, when he went 24-4 en route to his first Cy Young Award, was the last time a pitcher pulled off the feat.

ESPN’s John Buccigross mentioned just how close Scherzer was to the all-time-great streaks prior to Friday night’s contest:

While there is still a long way to go in the 2013 MLB season, Scherzer at times felt as dominant as Clemens in his prime on Friday night.

The 28-year-old flamethrower began splendidly—the way he has almost the entirety of this season. Scherzer retired the first 11 Tampa Bay batters, striking out four and only allowing one ball out of the infield.

Ben Zobrist broke up Scherzer‘s perfect-game bid with a solo home run with two outs in the fourth inning, his fifth of the season. Scherzer responded by asserting his dominance over the next batter, fanning Kelly Johnson to end the frame.

Johnson entered the game for Evan Longoria, who left with a foot injury, per an Associated Press report (h/t ESPN).

Though mostly dominant throughout, Scherzer‘s mistakes tended to be big ones. Wil Meyers took advantage of a hanging pitch in the fifth, belting a solo shot to left field for his third homer since being called up to the majors. 

Luckily, Scherzer‘s minor mistakes went unpunished. As has been the case in many of his wins this season, the Tigers star owes a thank you to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. The reigning American League MVP went 4-for-4 Friday night, blasting two home runs and driving in three runs to give Scherzer an early cushion.

This was the MLB-leading sixth time the Triple Crown-award-winning Cabrera has had four hits this season, per ESPN Stats & Information:

Fielder scored the Tigers’ fourth run of the game on a wild pitch by Rays starter Alex Colome in the fourth inning. Colome went six innings, giving up four earned runs and as many hits. 

After Colome left the game, Scherzer got himself into the closest thing to trouble he’d see. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Meyers singled to center and was doubled home by Luke Scott, bringing the score to 4-3. With a runner in scoring position and the Rays a base hit away from tying the game, Scherzer forced Jose Lobaton to hit a weak ground ball to first on a 2-2 count. 

Threat averted, Fielder clinched the game with a two-run bomb off Cesar Ramos that hit the catwalk at Tropicana to extend the lead to 6-3. That cushion gave Jim Leyland just enough room to feel comfortable taking Scherzer out of the game in favor of his relievers.

Al Alburquerque and Drew Smyly combined to take care of the eighth, while Joaquin Benoit sealed the deal in the ninth to record his fifth save of the season.

The win keeps the Tigers 2.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central, a lead for which Scherzer can take much credit. His 12 victories represent over a quarter of Detroit’s total for the season, and Scherzer‘s historic pace undoubtedly puts him in the Cy Young conversation.

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There was a time, not all that long ago, when Max Scherzer was about as predictable as the weather.

If you were Tigers manager Jim Leyland, you trotted Max out every fifth day and closed your eyes.

There’s nothing that will turn a manager’s hair gray faster than not knowing what he’s going to get from his starting pitchers from one outing to the next. Leyland didn’t know what he was going to get from Scherzer inning to inning—sometimes, from batter to batter.

Scherzer’s right arm was full of what baseball people like to say is “good stuff,” only he didn’t know how to harness it. His arm was as volatile as nitroglycerin.

The Tigers acquired Scherzer from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the three-team trade that sent Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees after the 2009 season. The Tigers needed Scherzer as another starter to replace the departed Edwin Jackson.

Scherzer was 25 at the time, and the book on him at Arizona was that he had that good stuff but was rawer than an oyster bar.

Max could strike guys out, but he could also turn the basepaths into a merry-go-round with this control issues. He could have a short and sweet 1-2-3 inning or a 40-pitch frame with more foot traffic than Grand Central Station.

The Tigers soon discovered that the scouting report on Scherzer was dead solid perfect—he was the human roller coaster.

It was Cy Young one day, and Sigh Young five days later.

Scherzer was installed in the Tigers rotation in 2010, and not having seen him pitch before, I thought the young man was trying to throw his arm to home plate, along with the baseball.

Scherzer, at the time, had what is known as a “violent” delivery. His windup was designed to gain power from his legs, which he then used to whip-snap the baseball from his right hand like it had cut him off in traffic.

It was anyone’s guess as to where the baseball was going at that point.

It wasn’t that Scherzer was ridiculously wild. In his only full season with the Diamondbacks, he averaged about 3.5 walks per nine innings.

He just threw a lot of pitches. Like, a ton of them. He was about as efficient as the government.

The Tigers presumably knew what they were getting in Scherzer, which was a big arm who could be a fixture in their rotation, as long as he could be refined. They hoped that he could, one day, be a nice complement to their ace, Justin Verlander.

The growing pains weren’t easy.

Scherzer won 12 games for the Tigers in 2010, against 11 losses. His ERA was a very manageable 3.50 in 31 starts.

But he was one of those guys whose season-ending numbers belied what you saw on a daily basis—and that was a laborious pitcher who averaged just six innings per start and who would frequently have to muddle through innings that were so long, they needed an intermission.

Scherzer kept striking guys out along the way—nearly one per inning in 2010. The strikeouts were nice but they also added to his pitch counts. He didn’t toss a complete game all season.

In 2011, Scherzer started 33 games, and didn’t quite average six innings per start. His ERA ballooned to 4.43—nearly a full run per game higher than the previous year.  But he won 15 games and lost only nine as the Tigers offense was a higher octane brew than in 2010.

In the ALCS against the Texas Rangers, Scherzer had a meltdown in the decisive Game 6 in Texas. The Tigers needed a win to force Game 7.

The start in Game 6 illustrated all that there was to be annoyed with Max Scherzer.

He lasted just two and one-third innings, surrendering five hits and six runs. He walked four, displaying the Maddening Max that had bedeviled the Tigers all season long. If the measuring stick of a starting pitcher is that he gives his team a chance to win, Scherzer failed miserably when the Tigers needed him the most.

The violent throwing motion and the laborious innings were enough, in tandem, to make fans think that Scherzer would never truly be a top-flight pitcher. His elevated ERA in 2011 added to the feeling.

Meanwhile, Verlander was capturing the AL Cy Young and the league MVP awards with his brilliant 2011 season. He needed his Robin to his Batman.

Right-hander Doug Fister, acquired via trade from the Seattle Mariners in July 2011, showed some flashes of being Verlander’s second banana. But Scherzer, by far, had the most alluring arm. He had the nitroglycerin.

Scherzer arrived in Lakeland in 2012 with two Tigers seasons under his belt. In both, he showed flashes of brilliance and flashes in the pan. Consistency had eluded him.

It got worse before it got better.

After eight starts last year, Scherzer was 2-3 with a 6.26 ERA. In the eight starts, he managed to pitch just 41.2 innings. He was averaging almost four walks per nine innings. He issued seven walks in an April start in New York.

Maddening Max!

Then it all came together.

After those first eight starts, Scherzer pitched 146 innings with an ERA of about 3.00, compiling a 14-4 record during that stretch. His stuff was still mesmerizing, but more harnessed. He was more Mad Max now. He was Verlander light—and that’s not meant to be a knock. But Scherzer still hasn’t thrown a complete game in the majors.

Scherzer is 8-0 this season with an ERA of 3.24 and he’s pitching as good as his record looks. He has 100 strikeouts against just 20 walks in 83.1 innings. He is perhaps the Tigers’ true ace right now, as Verlander continues to work through some issues that have knocked him down a notch.

Scherzer’s windup is still powerful, but the arm motion isn’t quite as violent. There’s more fluidity now. The strikeouts keep piling up, but the walks are down. His manager pretty much knows what to expect from Mad Max every fifth day.

If Scherzer was on any team that didn’t have Verlander on it, Max would be that team’s ace, by far.

He might be that, anyway, with the Tigers.

Isn’t that mad?

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The San Francisco Giants’ Cinderella-like postseason run that was capped by their second World Series championship in three seasons will forever be cemented in franchise history.

The Giants proved they could compete and be successful with far inferior talent than their opposition. The Giants were the best team during the 2012 playoffs for one reason; they had a solid nucleus of veteran leadership that never weakened.

The 2013 season could be much different.

A number of teams went all-in during free agency, looking to reload and better themselves for the season to come, while other teams leaned on the conservative side.  

Teams that had an active offseason in terms of upgrading their rosters included, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Washington, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels and the Detroit Tigers.

It’s certainly premature to say which teams will make it to the Fall Classic in October. But it’s fair to point out that the aforementioned clubs are in the best position to do so based on how active they were this offseason. 

Begin Slideshow

The Detroit Tigers have never had a player go into arbitration since Dave Dombrowski became the general manager in 2002, and they shouldn’t start with Max Scherzer.

According to CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman, Scherzer, the Tigers’ 28-year-old No. 2 starter, requested $7.4 million for 2013, which was $1.35 million more than Dombrowski wanted to offer him.

But the Tigers should give the right-hander everything he’s asking for, and probably more.

Scherzer had the best season of his five-year career in 2012, posting a 16-7 record with a 3.74 ERA and 231 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings.

His 231 strikeouts were good for second-best in the Major Leagues, only behind teammate Justin Verlander.

Last week, the two sides met to discuss what they thought Scherzer‘s 2013 contract is worth, but failed to find common ground.

Unless Scherzer and the Tigers come to an agreement in the next month, an arbitrator will be asked to decide for them, between the $7.4 million Scherzer is asking for, and the $6.05 million the Tigers are offering.

Because the Tigers haven’t gone as far an as arbitrator in over 10 years, they will most likely reach an agreement somewhere in the middle of what the two sides are proposing, but the Tigers should have more faith in Scherzer and give him what he’s asking for.

Because he’s worth it.

Scherzer only made $3.75 million last season after recording the second-most strikeouts and the sixth-most wins the American League.

The Tigers already gave Anibal Sanchez, who went 9-13 with a 3.86 ERA last season, including 4-6 and 3.74 in 12 starts with Detroit, a contract worth $16 million per year for the next five years, so why not give Scherzer more money?

Not only did Scherzer have the year of his life during the 2012 regular season, but he elevated his game in the playoffs.

In three postseason appearances a year ago, Scherzer posted a 1-0 record with a 2.08 ERA, 26 strikeouts compared to only four walks in 17 1/3 innings.

He rebounded from injury and personal tragedy to become the second member of the Tigers’ dangerous 1-2 punch behind Verlander, and he should be rewarded for doing so.

The Tigers are giving Sanchez $16 million a year. Scherzer isn’t even asking for half of that.

Owner Mike Illitch, Dombrowski and the Tigers need to pony up the dough.

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The Tigers rode their starting rotation to a Central Division title and an appearance in the World Series. The Tigers have insured they will have the same rotation (more or less) that pitched a great postseason for Detroit.

They do have several questions facing them for the 2013 season, can they stay healthy, can Porcello or Smyly take a hold of the fifth job, and can recently re-signed Anibal Sanchez pitch as well as he did down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer finished 2012 leading all of baseball in strikeouts. What can we expect from them and the other Tigers starters in 2013?

Lets take a look and see.

Begin Slideshow

Update: Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 10:03 p.m. ET

The good news is that Scherzer’s injury doesn’t appear to be serious, per Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com.

Morosi tweeted on Tuesday:

Max Scherzer has no structural damage. He will not throw for a couple days, will be analyzed from there.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 19, 2012

— End of Update —

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Max Scherzer left Tuesday’s game against the Oakland Athletics with right shoulder fatigue, according to Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com.

Morosi tweeted on Tuesday:

Scherzer right shoulder fatigue, will undergo MRI.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 18, 2012

This is certainly a bad time for this to flare up for Scherzer. Not only are the Tigers 5.5 games back for a Wild Card spot in the American League, they are facing the Athletics, who lead the Wild Card race.

The 28-year-old right-hander was 16-6 with a 3.78 ERA and 1.27 WHIP headed into Tuesday’s matchup in Detroit. He had compiled 224 strikeouts in just 178.2 innings this season. He was even better after the All-Star break, posting an 8-1 record with a 2.61 ERA.

With the Tigers already on the outside looking in, if Scherzer is forced to miss time, it could be crippling for the squad. Despite the efforts of Scherzer and Justin Verlander, the Tigers have posted a starters’ ERA of 3.93 this season.

The Tigers, who are three games behind the Chicago White Sox, were largely expected to capture the AL Central this season after the signing of slugger Prince Fielder in the offseason. They have scored the ninth-most runs in Major League Baseball.

Including Tuesday’s game, the Tigers have 16 games to right the ship. With Scherzer aboard, there was still hope. 

Now, Detroit must wait for the MRI results and hope nothing is too serious. Otherwise, a club highly touted before the season could miss the playoffs altogether.

The good news for Detroit?

The Tigers play the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins twice each before the end of the regular season.

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I could not have envisioned the context of this entry just five days ago…but here it is.

On the strength of his 15-strikeout gem against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 20, Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer (3-3, 63 strikeouts in 2012) has emerged as a coveted asset in trade talks, primarily with squads chasing strikeouts.

Sunday’s stellar outing (which included only one walk) was already Scherzer’s second double-digit strikeout effort and fourth of nine or more Ks since April 13.

There’s also an ERA angle to consider here: Before his May 5 start against the White Sox, Scherzer (5.73 seasonal ERA) and Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones apparently closed a hole in the pitcher’s delivery. Since that tutorial, Scherzer has surrendered just 10 earned runs in his last four starts (3.73 ERA during that span).

During spring training, I had Scherzer pegged as the No. 33 starting pitcher, a ranking that has looked boldly prescient at times and woefully inadequate for others. (Scherzer has allowed five or more runs three times this season.)

Looking at his next five starts (@ Twins, @ Red Sox, vs. Indians, @ Cubs, vs. Rockies), Scherzer has a realistic capacity for three wins and 38 strikeouts.

Obviously, Scherzer is not in Tigers teammate Justin Verlander‘s class; but as No. 4 fantasy starters go, he compares favorably to Colby Lewis, Tommy Hanson or Josh Beckett.

(For the record, AccuScore has Scherzer projected for 7.2 victories, 139.3 strikeouts, a 4.35 ERA and 1.35 WHIP from this point forward—May 23 to Sept. 30.)

Here’s a balanced, three-tiered breakdown of Scherzer’s adjusted trade value in 12-team roto leagues:

1-for-1
Bryan LaHair, Melky Cabrera, Nick Markakis or Drew Stubbs

2-for-2
Scherzer/Michael Cuddyer for Yovani Gallardo/Jason Kipnis
Scherzer/Jason Heyward for Anibal Sanchez/Andre Ethier
Scherzer/Ichiro Suzuki for Matt Cain/Justin Morneau

2-for-3
Scherzer/Ian Kinsler for Matt Holliday/J.P. Arencibia/Tim Hudson
Scherzer/Jose Bautista for Michael Young/Brandon Phillips/C.J. Wilson
Scherzer/Joe Mauer for Austin Jackson/Jonathan Lucroy/Jordan Zimmermann
Scherzer/Curtis Granderson for Hunter Pence/Erik Bedard/Jose Reyes

Jay Clemons can be reached on Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.

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