TORONTO — Watching Marcus Stroman pitch is never a dull experience. He stalks the mound menacingly between batters, talking to himself and nodding his head with confident assertion. When he delivers a big pitch, he pauses at the height of his follow through, sticking his arm and leg out like a crane as he waits for a result. He chews six sticks of Orbitz sweet mint simultaneously; his chains ring around his neck like flying saucers; his pure, authoritative swag on the field of play is undeniable.
Friday night, he’ll get to put all that on display for 50,000 rhapsodic fans as he starts his team’s major league home opener for the first time in his life.
"I can’t lie — I’ve been looking forward to the home opener a lot more than the regular opener," Stroman says. "I’m really excited for this opportunity. I’m just really excited to get out there and feel the energy of the crowd."
Stroman’s no stranger to big spots like this, and he’s no slouch in them either. These are the games he craves to pitch in — the ones that motivate him the most. He started for Toronto, in Toronto, three times last year during the post-season, going at least six innings in each before the largest, rowdiest crowds the Rogers Centre has seen in decades.
While many wondered if those outings were too much, too soon for Stroman, who doesn’t have a full major league season on his resume and had just completed a long, gruelling rehabilitation from knee surgery, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons disagreed. He gave Stroman those starts because he knew he could handle them, and then watched from the dugout as the 24-year-old proved his manager right.
"He really came on there at the end. Everybody saw it. He pitched in those playoff games that we had to have, and he rose to the occasion. And to be honest, that doesn’t surprise me," Gibbon says. "We’ve all liked the kid since Day 1 when he arrived here. And it wasn’t just because he had a great arm. He’s got a ton of confidence. Your top players have that little extra something. And he had that. And what he showed us, what he did last year at the end of the year, really with having no season at all under his belt, reveals a lot to me."
Now there’s no question as to whether Stroman can handle what the Blue Jays are asking of him, which began with a start on opening day, continues with Friday’s home opener, and ideally finishes sometime in late October with Stroman having anchored the Blue Jays pitching staff throughout the year.
Catch Marcus Stroman: The #STROSHOW, a special Sportsnet documentary debuting this Saturday, April 9, following the Red Sox-Blue Jays game.
Just like Stroman, Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro is about to experience his first Toronto home opener Friday night. He isn’t shy to admit he never thought he’d see a five-foot-eight starter be the ace of a pitching staff.
"I would be lying if I said that. But that’s part of what makes him special. A lot of people doubted that along the way," Shapiro says. "He’s a guy who, the more people doubted him, the more he believed in himself and turned that to his advantage. To me, that’s what you want. You want players who want to be in the game in a situation with the game on the line in the biggest moments. Those guys that embrace those opportunities are usually pretty special players."
Throughout his young life as a pitcher, Stroman has continued to evolve, from a Duke University closer who tried to strike out every batter he faced, to the sinker-heavy, strike-zone-attacking major league starter he is today.
The two-seamer Stroman threw 48 per cent of the time against the Rays in his first start on Sunday is a pitch he discovered less than two years ago. Now it’s his most important offering, and one he used to thoroughly frustrate Tampa Bay hitters, as he pounded it at the bottom of the strike zone and induced weak contact early in counts.
Stroman also flashed a modified delivery in that game, sometimes using his traditional wind-up and sometimes using a much quicker one in order to try to keep hitters off balance. You can thank Jose Bautista for that one, or even Josh Donaldson, or simply all the hitters around the MLB who are beginning to utilize leg kicks to time pitcher deliveries.
"We’re seeing more and more leg kicks around the league — so this is just a way to counter that timing," Stroman’s catcher, Russell Martin, says. "If you’re able to do it with control and the same type of action on your pitches, it’s useful. It’s really deceiving for a hitter."
Martin experienced it first hand on Wednesday afternoon in Tampa, when Rays left-hander Matt Moore began varying his delivery during his outing.
"I had to really adjust to that. And that’s what it does — it makes you adjust," Martin says. "Anything that gets you thinking a little bit at the plate is going to help the pitcher."
Stroman says he doesn’t have particular spots where he wants to go to the shortened delivery and that the biggest factor in using it or not is what he’s seeing from the hitter.
Stroman talks about his feel for pitching all the time — feel for his pitches, feel the strike zone, feel for the situation. It’s an impossible thing to describe. But when Stroman’s on the mound, in the middle of a game, something deep within is telling him exactly what he wants to do.
"That’s how it’s always been with my delivery. Everything to me is about being comfortable and just going off my feel, because that’s one thing I know I have and it helps me adjust when things get tough," Stroman says. "It’s just, if I feel like it, I’m doing it that particular pitch. Or if I feel that the hitter was a little quick and I can kind of jump on them a little bit, I’ll use it."
Stroman worked on the expedited delivery throughout spring training and utilized it a few times in his opening day start against the Rays, to varying levels of success.
Some hitters looked truly surprised to see Stroman’s left leg driving at them so early in his wind up, but others reacted well to it, like Rays DH Corey Dickerson, who took a Stroman quick pitch deep to right field for a home run in bottom of the ninth.
Stroman was clearly frustrated with himself when he got back to the dugout after being lifted a batter later, muttering under his breath and pacing up and down after an otherwise remarkable start that saw him dominate Rays hitters over eight innings. But Martin tells the story differently.
"On that one, we tried to go with a fastball up. And, I mean, Stro put the ball right where my glove was. So, when that happens, it’s really on the catcher," Martin says. "That one wasn’t on him. Obviously it’s not a perfect science just yet. But I think it works."
And that’s the crux of it all — nothing Stroman does is particularly ordinary, but it works. He’s pacing off the mound after a strike out; he’s sprinting after any ground ball hit near him; he’s nodding his head and chewing his gum and pounding his glove as he goes about his work on the mound.
Marcus Stroman’s a different guy. And it’s never dull to watch.