Max Scherzer

“You always have to get better.”

“You've got to get better every single year, it doesn't matter.”

“You never stay the same - as a pitcher, as an athlete. It doesn't matter what you do, you never stay the same.”

“I beat the odds, and I beat the odds so many times.”

“For me, it's all about winning.”

“You either get better or you get worse. Those are the only two options.”

“There's really no secret to this; that everybody's - they are going to have a game plan against me and I'm going to have a game plan against them. It just comes down to execution.”

“It's always, 'No matter what the outing is, you can always find a way to be a better pitcher.' No matter what you do.”

“Sometimes I have to try to remind myself that I don't try to strike out hitters.”

“When you look at starting pitchers, once they make it through year four, then - knock on wood - you see a lot of injury risk go down.”

“I understand what sabermetrics get across, and what they're getting across is to keep it simple. Especially for me, as a pitcher, that's something that helps me - finding ways to keep it simple. Numbers can only tell so much.”

“Look, the umpires behind the plate? They're human. They're doing the best they can to try to call balls and strikes. I understand that there's a lot of calls that kinda are 50-50. They can go either way. And as a starting pitcher, you try to manage, 'Alright, if you didn't get that call, maybe you'll get it again here a few innings later.'”

“That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.”

“When I was 18, graduating high school, I was going to the University of Missouri.”

“Fenway Park is a fun place to pitch in. You've got 38,000 fans all cheering against you. It's an intense atmosphere.”

“All of the off-field stuff, I can promise you, it doesn't even register with me.”

“Who would people rather see, a real hitter hitting home runs or a pitcher swinging a wet newspaper?”

“You can't get too caught up in trying to pitch a complete game, because that's hard to do.”

“I've gotten to visit all the parks and put my name inside the Fenway wall.”

“When there's too many teams that are not trying to win, that poisons the game, poisons the fan experience, and it creates bandwagon fans.”