Ben Nicholson-Smith

Max Scherzer struck out Jose Cruz Jr.

in his first major league game.

Like, that feels totally incongruous to me.

It feels like a different era.

I mean, it is a different era.

And that's who he was facing.

Darren Erstad was in that game.

Doug Brocale was in that game.

So...

you know, an unbelievable amount of longevity and durability and just like dominance.

You don't get to 3,500 strikeouts unless you are pairing incredible durability with just dominance on an annual basis.

And that's what Max Scherzer's career has been.

Yeah, it's a credit to his work ethic and his mentality because as much as he is, yeah, physically impressive, I think mentally it's almost more so where this guy is just like the competitiveness is off the charts, absolutely off the charts, as you know, Arden, from talking to him the last couple of years.

It's just like relentless.

He just holds himself to such a high standard.

And so far this year, it's been nine homers and 22 innings, which is a very,

very high rate um and is part of the reason his era is over 10 and part of the reason we're having this discussion but um yeah certainly one of a kind uh when it comes to max scherzer so uh we will keep our eyes on what's happening there for the moment we'll take a quick step away here on at the letters and when we return we will discuss the top of the blue jays batting order

Welcome back to At The Letters, which is produced by Christian Ryan.

And just one more topic to get to here, Arden.

It's the top of the Blue Jays order.