Marcus Stroman gives unexpected credit for his great start to the season

Marcus Stroman has been fantastic through his first two starts this season, and he has given credit to something not many pitchers would. 

Stroman has been a fine pitcher for much of his career. Through two starts this season, he has been on a slightly different level though, allowing no runs on five hits over 12 total innings. Walks have been a bit of an issue, as he has issued six free passes, and he’ll never be a high-end dominant strikeout guy (14 so far this season, good for a 10.5 K/9). But so far, so good.

The keys for Stroman are control/command and being ground-ball heavy with the contact he allows. He also comes at hitters with a six-pitch arsenal (sinker, slurve, cutter, split-finger, slider four-seamer), though he throws his sinker 40-plus percent of the time.

Stroman is the first pitcher in Chicago Cubs history to open a season with two straight starts of at least six scoreless innings since Mike Bielecki in 1991. Going back to May 1 last year, he has pitched very well.

After his start last Friday against the Texas Rangers, MLB Network’s Dan Plesac had a nice  breakdown of Stroman’s performance.

Marcus Stroman credits pitching in the World Baseball Classic for his great start

After that outing on Friday, via the Chicago Sun Times, Stroman credited pitching competitively for Puerto Rico (where his mother was born) in the World Baseball Classic for setting him on a course to hit the ground running this season.

"“I feel it puts you in that competitive mind frame and gets you going much earlier than spring training, where you can go through the motions at that time,” Stroman said Friday after helping to beat the Rangers 2-0."

Stroman noted the success he had in 2017 with the Toronto Blue Jays, after he had pitched in the WBC. He pitched 201 innings that season, with a 3.09 ERA as he finished eighth in AL Cy Young voting and won a Gold Glove.

“My year in 2017, after I played in that WBC, I feel like I had one of the best starts to my season, I came out and threw 200 innings after that year.”

Some pitchers lamented the idea of ramping up to pitch competitive innings so early in the spring for the World Baseball Classic, to the point they didn’t participate. Not Stroman though, which really isn’t surprising within the scope of his career and the evidence we’ve seen of the way he’s wired.