the arizona diamondbacks chose scherzer in the first round with the 11th overall pick of the 2006 mlb draft. mike rizzo, the diamondbacks' scouting director, marveled that scherzer attacked hitters with a relentlessness that he had never seen. eight pitchers were selected ahead of him, including luke hochevar (first overall pick), brandon morrow, clayton kershaw, and tim lincecum. scouting reports criticized scherzer for too violent of a delivery, but rizzo and other arizona scouts decided that "the combination of his arm action and his pitching iq and his attack mode ... we were calling him 'mad max' in the draft room. he came at you. he looked angry. he looked mad."