Today I wanted to look at one of my favorite pitchers to watch in baseball, Marcus Stroman. A player that has the potential to be one of the most electric pitchers in baseball, from his passion, work ethic, to his ability to try new techniques to gain an advantage while pitching. I was really sad when he didn’t get traded to the Yankees in 2019. I thought he would have fit in perfectly with that that team. Instead he landed on the Mets and I knew he was going to be successful. Not all players have the mental ability to preform in high pressured cities. There is no stage brighter than the big apple, where the fans and media always expect you to preform no matter what. It’s in these types of places that some players can’t preform but it’s in this type of environment where pitchers like Stroman thrive. The pitchers that pitch with such passion and swagger that the crowd can’t help but get behind you. These players feed off the crowd and no matter how big the moment they are able to succeed. Stroman grew up on Long Island, so he knows that NY mentality. Where the fans are so passionate and they appreciate players that show that same emotion playing for their city. In my opinion there was no better fit for him than in NY, whether that be in the Bronx or Queens. I’ll never forget his performance in the World Baseball Classic final against Puerto Rico in 2017. Team Puerto Rico was filled with many great players, but Stroman put the USA on his damn back by not allowing a hit until the 7th inning. Emotions and swagger on full display, it looked like nothing was going to stop him that night. I knew every time I stepped on that mound I wanted to bring that same fire and passion for my team.
As I mentioned above I admire Stroman for his ability to be a smart and effective pitcher. An example of this is shown above, where he messes with the timing of his delivery in order to throw of the balance of the hitter. As you can see in the video, the batters look extremely uncomfortable. If you are pitching you want the batter to be as uncomfortable as possible because the the more comfortable they are the more likely they are to hit it. This is why when hitters are on hot streaks, they are seeing the ball perfectly and totally comfortable at the plate, no matter the pitcher. One way to gain that advantage as a pitcher is every once in awhile you can disrupt a hitters timing, especially if you are a starting pitcher when you face players multiple at bats. The more the batter gets to see you, the better they can time up pitches. And the numbers don’t lie, if you can steal pitches like this here and there, it can give you as a pitcher more of an edge over the batter. For example statistical batting average differs with different counts. In a 0-0 count the batter has a batting average of .345 compared to a .024 point drop to .321 in a 0-1 count. This change is is even more drastic in an 0-2 count where the hitter has a batting average of .157. As a pitcher if you can steal a strike using this timing method, the odds of the batter getting a hit basically gets cut in half. As you can hear Stroman talk about in his press conference, batters spend hours looking at videos of other pitcher looking for any information they can to give themselves an advantage. He does the same exact thing and keeps it in his head for when he makes his starts. If he feel batters are getting too comfortable or wants to steal a strike in an important count, he can use his timing method to be successful. Stroman has practiced this his whole career, even while just playing catch. Everything always has a purpose. He’s always testing and perfecting these motions. Even physically, you have to have perfect body control in order to not only balance but stop and slow your body so rapidly. This isn’t something that happens overnight, there’s a lot of effort and work put in to perfect it. We don’t see it a lot of this around the league but it can be an important tool in a pitchers arsenal that can give them an edge over a batter.
The Washed Up Athlete 