True Blue LA podcast episode 2133: The incredible Max Scherzer

This week on the podcast we look at Max Scherzer’s tremendous impact on the Dodgers, talk about the order we think Scherzer and Walker Buehler will pitch during the postseason, and look back at yet another series loss to the Giants that leaves the Dodgers still looking up in the National League West.

With Scherzer on our minds, there is lots of talk and trivia about strikeouts in this episode. And we even hold a buffalo wing draft of sorts.

Thanks as usual to producer Brian Salvatore for making us sound pretty.

Dodgers rewind

Since we talked about former Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, we look back at Washington’s team before moving to DC, and find one of the few pitchers with 300 innings for both the Dodgers and Expos (or Nationals), left-hander Carlos Pérez.

Pérez was the younger brother of pitchers Pascual Pérez and Melido Pérez, and when he was traded to the Dodgers he was 27 years old with a 112 career ERA+ in two and a half seasons in Montreal.

He came to Los Angeles in one of many trades in 1998. This one was at the trade deadline, with Pérez, Mark Grudzielanek, and Hiram Bocachica coming to the Dodgers for Wilton Guerrero and prospects Ted Lilly, Peter Bergeron, and Jonny Tucker.

Pérez down the stretch was just fine in 1998, with a 3.24 ERA and 125 ERA+ in 11 starts, but then he went downhill. He had a 6.28 ERA in 233... innings in 1999-2000 combined, a stretch most remembered for Pérez taking a baseball bat to a water cooler in the Dodgers dugout.

His poor performance was also marred by an incident on a charter flight in July 2000, when a flight attendant accused Pérez and Kevin Elster of causing injuries that required multiple surgeries, and she later sued the Dodgers. Pérez was released a few months into the 2001 season, when he was pitching in Triple-A Las Vegas.

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