Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Alex Scherff deserves your attention.
The Boston Red Sox have a serious pitching problem. It’s something they aren’t just going to magically get better at either. They’ll need to find players via free agency and call up prospects. The group out there right now clearly is not the answer.
With that in mind, what prospects do they have? The obvious answers are Bryan Mata, Jay Groome, Noah Song, Thad Ward, Chris Murphy, Durbin Feltman and Chih-Jung Liu (among others).
What about Alex Scherff? Do you remember him? Back in 2017 he was ranked as the Red Sox number five overall prospect by MLB. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that is really good.
Three years later and he’s not in their top-30 anymore. And maybe a lot of people have written him off because of that.
But … Scherff is still just 22.
And in two seasons, the right-handed pitcher has absolutely had his struggles. He has a career ERA of 4.70, a career WHIP of 1.51 and a career BAA of .288. Scherff has allowed 21 home runs in 199 1/3 innings.
Not everything is bad though. The strikeouts aren’t bad with 166 in this 199 1/3 innings. And he’s enjoyed some absolutely dominant outings in those two years. A couple implosion starts tend to hurt the numbers heavily though.
Those dominant outings give everyone a glimpse of what he can bring. There was a reason Scherff was regarded so highly just a few years ago.
So outside of his great starts, what is there to love? The 6’3″, 205 lb frame is nice. That’s prototypical pitcher size right there, and could help with how some view his potential.
Meanwhile, it’s the pitches you should love.
The fastball gained velocity in 2019. He managed to rip them back and nearly hit 100 MPH at times. And they usually sit in the low-mid 90s. Most importantly though, Scherff has plenty of movement with it. This is looking like a star-type pitch.
The curveball is not perfect. It tends to run around the high-70s and has great sharp movement. However, Scherff does not have the greatest command of this pitch. That means it finds the dirt or can be left across the plate a bit too often. However, if he does find the command of this pitch, he’s got something here.
And of course, the changeup. No surprise I’m talking about it last. It’s not as good as his fastball, but I’ll say it for the 1,000th time – a good changeup is the best pitch in baseball. And Scherff’s has potential to be very good.
Out of his hand, it looks like a fastball. The right-handed pitcher sits in the low-mid 80s with it though, and it has really nice late drop on it. He needs to work on his control and command of this pitch, but this could be a fun one.
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Scherff has a great frame and good pitches. He has shown he can dominate with them too. The righty is still just 22, and he has some swag to him too. That’s important on the mound.
I’m not saying he’s cocky, but he seems to have confidence and swagger. Sort of like Miles in HARDBALL. When he’s on (listening to Big Poppa) you can just tell he’s vibing on the mound – and Scherff is going to make some hitters look foolish.
He should be able to get the fans behind him with that swagger too. And could be a lot of fun for the media to cover. There’s one more big positive about him too.
Last season, Scherff struggled in Full-A. He ended the year by making one start in Advanced-A. In that game, he went 6 1/3 innings. He allowed just one run on five hits and two walks, while striking out three. Scherff showed that he could pitch at the next level.
Losing 2020 sucks. It’s going to hurt his development a bit, just like it will with every other young prospect. He’s still very young though. And could absolutely become a nice piece in the Boston Red Sox rotation in a few years.
Give it some time. You should still be excited about Alex Scherff, there’s something special about him.