The Tigers continued their dominance over the NL last weekend with their 3rd straight series win and 4th overall against the inferior senior circuit. This version of awards is pretty easy to decide.
Verlander of the Series has to go to Max Scherzer. While he did have a 15K outing earlier this season, but Sunday's pitching performance was masterful. It might have been Max's best start of his career. In the 4th inning the game was delayed for 45 minutes, and Max came back out of the dugout to finish the inning and go 4 more! He struck out 12 Rockies and didnt allow a run. Personally, I think the most important stat was Scherzer didn't walk anyone. I do not expect Max to come out and pitch like this every night, but maybe this is a turning point of his season. I think he is talented enough to be a 2nd starter on some teams, but the problem is he pitches like an ace once in every 5-6 starts, then like a marginal AAA pitcher once in that span and the remaining 3-4 starts are average at best. If Scherzer can lower his ERA to around 4.00 and have his WHIP down in the 1.2 range, the Tigers will be tough to keep out of the division lead for long.
Schlereth of the Series will go to Jose Valverde. He has a tendency of racking up quite a few of these awards. The spud sputtered out on Friday night blowing a game tied at 4. By the time he left the mound the Tigers were down 8-4 with 2 more men on base that he was responsible for. I believed Jose was turning the corner a bit in his outings. He was using the splitter with more regularity, his velocity was creeping back up into the mid 90's, and his control seemed to be improving. Well, Papa took a big step back with this loss. Maybe this season is just one of those 1 step forwards and 2 steps back for the baked potato.
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