2017 FANTASY BASEBALL PLAYER ANALYZER: MAX SCHERZER SP WASHINGTON NATIONALS

After tossing not one but TWO no-hitters in a spectacular 2015 campaign for the Washington Nationals, it was tough to imagine that Max Scherzer could top such a dominant season.  Well Scherzer unveiled some new tricks in 2016 as he reached a new high with his already insane K/9 rate (11.19) and that led to another new career-best in strikeouts with 284.  As the topper, Scherzer claimed his second Cy Young Award.  While Scherzer has been widely considered the number 2 starting pitcher in fantasy baseball behind Clayton Kershaw for a few years now, the argument can be made that he passed his Los Angeles Dodgers counterpart based on possessing much better durability.  While Kershaw missed half of last season with a herniated disk in his back, Scherzer pitched over 200 innings for the fourth year in a row.  So far all of those innings have not hurt Scherzer but he did see a spike in his HR/9 (1.22) that was more of an issue the first half of the year.  On the plus side, Scherzer has maintained terrific control with all of those strikeouts and his win total will remain very impressive considering he pitches for one of the best teams in baseball.  There is simply nothing to say here that is remotely negative regarding Scherzer’s makeup and he is as safe an early round investment as one can make at this volatile position. 

2017 PROJECTION:  20-4 2.75 ERA 0.99 WHIP 272 K