“Shimmies, delivery hesitations and different arm slots.”: Stroman Tweets, Pitches and Mixes it Up
Marcus Stroman had an arbitration hearing this week and lost. And Stroman did what Stroman does, which is tweet about it.
H/T to Stoeten who captured it before it was deleted.
The particularly sticky thing was the bit about the stuff he heard from the Jays.
Having to listen to all the negative things your employer can come up with to say about you might anger up the blood. Arbitration is a tricky process and Stroman tweeted his frustrations. This made some fans “mad online”. Tweets about him being spoiled and ungrateful flooded in.
I’m not going to argue that this was a great thing for Stroman to tweet and I would also tell him, if he asked my opinion, that taking a deep breath and maybe a walk would be good idea before whipping the phone out. That just comes with maturity.
The Blue Jays probably don’t like the idea of Stroman shooting from the hip without any filter, but they also benefit from his style of play. And so do the fans. If Stroman needs extra fire to motivate himself, maybe allow him that.
It became a thing. Because things have to become a thing. As Stoeten put it:
The Blue Jays probably don’t like the idea of Stroman expressing himself so openly (I'm suspecting someone talked to him, which led to the deleted tweet) but they also benefit from his style of play, which appears to be his style of living.
He’s not doing anything particularly cruel or disrespectful. Stroman is just living out loud and, so far, it doesn’t appear to be affecting his pitching. Which is really the only thing fans should care about.
The unfollow button remains available to all.
This is such a oblivious tweet I had to share it.
It's like he's read no baseball news at all since November. Or maybe ever.
So many tweets about this issue told Stroman to "shut up and pitch". Stroman appears to be working that.
“Shimmies, delivery hesitations and different arm slots.”
“Obviously I’m not going pure submariner,” said Stroman. “I would never do that. I’m a sinkerballer, I’m going to stick to my strengths.”
Nicholson-Smith's piece also featured Curtis Granderson:
“I was joking with Stroman recently,” said Curtis Granderson, “And I was like ‘you know what, if you start doing that stuff, what if I start doing a bunch of stuff? Do you think they’d let me do it?’ It’s just a crazy part of the game.
“Pitchers have a lot of freedom and flexibility,” Granderson continued. “Things don’t start until they get the ball and they’re ready to roll, so (there’s no chance for payback) unless I start stepping out of the batter’s box, move up in the batter’s box, jump at him.”
“You hear all the stories of all the Negro League greats doing crazy stuff like that — the funky windups,” Granderson said. “All of those different things were not only to disrupt the rhythm of the hitter, but to add to that entertainment side of the game.”
I sat behind the plate for a Stroman start last year and it was definitely entertaining. The energy, the movement, the adjustments, the sound.
It's baseball.
All the pictures I used are by Frank Gunn. He's on Twitter @frankgunnphoto
He also fully appreciates the gloriousness of Russell Martin's hair.