The Metropolitan: Stroman dazzles with nasty new pitch
Plus, catching up on Spring Training news
Good Morning,
Today we’ll talk about Marcus Stroman’s impressive spring debut and new pitch, but we start with a recap of the Mets’ Grapefruit home opener.
⏰ Recap the game in 60(ish) seconds…
🍎 ALMOST HOME: Playing in front of their own fans at Clover Park for the first time since the pandemic started last March, the Mets won 2-0 over the Houston Astros in 7 innings.
NORMALCY: "Obviously we're going to love it when everybody can come in and we can pack the house,” Brandon Nimmo told reporters after the game. “But right now this is great being able to have the fans there and to be able to hear the crowd noise when Jeff [McNeil] hit that home run, really brought us back to feeling some sort of normalcy.”
🔥 NASTY: After pushing up his first start to Tuesday, Marcus Stroman looked very impressive in his first outing since opting out of the 2020 season. He retired all six batters he faced, striking out two while throwing 22 of his 30 pitches for strikes, and unleashing a special, new offering (more on this in a bit).
⚾️ POWER: The Mets’ offense was ignited by solo home runs from McNeil and recent outfield addition Albert Almora Jr.
💪 ARM: Catcher James McCann showed off his arm by throwing out Houston’s Freudis Novaan attempting to steal, on a strike-‘em-out-throw-‘em-out: “That was an outstanding play,” manager Luis Rojas told reporters. “Quick exchange, footwork — James did a good job here,”
👋 DEBUT: Right-hander Sam McWilliams, whom the Mets signed to an expensive minor league deal over the winter, made his spring debut. While he struggled with his command, he ended up striking out two and battled through a scoreless inning for the save.
In other news…
🗣 A new report on Mickey Callaway by The Athletic revealed more on what the Mets really knew about his harassing behavior towards women:
One anecdote describes Mets interns flagging an email in 2018 from an angry husband who was upset after finding Callaway had sent “unsolicited pornographic material” to his wife while coaching in Cleveland.
“I would like to think that if the Mets were aware of this situation, they would not want this type of person as their employee representing their organization,” the email read. While the Mets spoke to Callaway about it, they never contacted the husband to learn more.
One former Mets employee said Callaway had a nickname within the organization: “D*ck Pick Mick.”
🤦♂️ CORRECTION: Thanks to several of you who reached out yesterday to note JB’s mistake in referencing opponent exit velocity instead of pitch velocity in writing Trevor Hildenberger threw 102.9 MPH and Sean Reid-Foley nearly 99 in their spring debuts. We all have our Luis Castillo pop-up moments.
🎧 LISTEN: Both of us (Blake & JB) appeared on the latest edition of SNY’s Shea Anything Podcast with Doug Williams and Andy Martino to bring you behind-the-scenes of this newsletter, and preview the upcoming season.
Marcus Stroman shows us something new
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
After convincing the Mets to let him make his spring debut on his throw day, Marcus Stroman looked like Inspector Gadget on the mound, using a variety of wind-ups and pitch offerings seemingly pulled from his hat, as he tossed two perfect frames against the Astros on Tuesday.
By the time he hop-skipped off the mound following his final strikeout, he had thrown 10 sinkers, 4 cutters, 2 four-seamers, 2 curveballs, 6 sliders and 6 of these:
If Stroman is going to pitch like this, the Mets might just be the National League East favorites, as the projections keep trying to tell us.
That new pitch you saw above is a product of Stroman working with Robert Gsellman in Brooklyn last summer. The right-hander recently explained to Rob Friedman of Pitching Ninja how he learned to grip what he calls a “split-change” by using pressure from his ring finger upon release to create the desired movement.
After opting out of the 2020 season, he continued to try to gain a feel for the pitch, but Tuesday was the first time he got to use it in action.
“You never know until you throw it against hitters,” Stroman told reporters after the game. “It can feel filthy, it can feel nasty, it can feel like the best pitch ever. But until you actually get out there and throw it in a game, and see how hitters react to it, I feel like you can’t actually consider that pitch a weapon. … After throwing it today, I feel like it’s a weapon.”
What makes the split-change so special? It comes down to whiffs. While Stroman has tried to mix in a change-up to offset his 1-2 sinker/slider punch, it’s not a pitch that has developed into a weapon for him. It lacks movement and doesn’t miss bats. By finding a pitch that creates a velocity gap off his sinker, while adding significant drop, Stroman becomes a much more dangerous pitcher.
He would then have the potential to include three plus pitches in his arsenal with a sinker that he can use in all counts and situations, a slider that generates whiffs from righties, and now a split-change as a potential put-away pitch to left-handed hitters. You can get a rough idea of how these different pitches look to a hitter in the overlay video below.
We are still four weeks away from Opening Day, and Stroman will undoubtedly continue to tinker with his approach, as he gets used to pulling a new pitch from his bag of tricks. But from what we saw in his first start, it’s hard not to get excited.
⚾️ Former Met Yoenis Cespedes held a showcase for 11 teams on Tuesday (and no, the Mets didn’t show up on horseback).
⚾️ Similar to last season, MLB teams will operate alternate sites for their non-active roster players, delaying the start of the Triple-A season by at least one month, per Jeff Passan.
⚾️ Left-handed reliever Jose Alvarez is closing in on a deal with the Giants, per Jon Heyman.
🔗 Mets’ Brandon Nimmo embracing his spring training batting challenge, by Mike Puma, NY Post: “Nimmo cited former Rockies star Todd Helton as somebody who regularly took batting practice against lefties to sharpen his skills. But Nimmo’s challenge over the winter was finding such a pitcher. Nimmo settled on an assistant clubhouse attendant.”
🔗 Is timing right for Mets to extend star trio? by Anthony DiComo, MLB.com: “If Lindor signs even a 10-year contract, he will be 37 when it expires. To date, the largest contract the Mets have ever offered was their $138 million deal for David Wright in 2012. To more than double that for a player who has never played a game for them would be both a significant commitment and a significant risk -- with, of course, significant upside.”
🔗 Why these Mets should be fun, by Ben Carsley, Baseball Prospectus: “It’s been a while since the Mets were objectively good, but it feels like it’s been even longer since they were objectively fun. Well, this group should serve as the ultimate stress test. If the Mets manage to kill the good vibes from a roster that has Lindor, deGrom, Alonso, Syndergaard, Stroman, Conforto, and NO Bauer, they should just call it a franchise. Maybe Cohen can use the profits from any Mets sale to recoup some of the losses he suffered at the hands of a bunch of bored Redditors.”
🎧 LISTEN: James McCann joined the Sports Spectrum podcast.
And we leave you with this video of Simon Juan, whom the Mets are expected to sign, per Baseball America…
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