Should the Blue Jays start Marcus Stroman on Sunday?

A few of my fellow Staff Writers here at Jays Journal had a bit of an extended discussion today about the possibility of the Toronto Blue Jays calling up Marcus Stroman to be Sunday’s apparent mystery starter. No one wants to believe that it’s really going to be Todd Redmond. Since I would say most of us are sick of talking about J.P. Arencibia, Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurst by now I wanted to share with our readers a (relatively) unfiltered conversation we had about whether of not Stroman should be this Sunday’s starting pitcher in Toronto against the Minnesota Twins.

Jul 13, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos during batting practice before their game against the Cleveland Indians at the Rogers Centre. The Indians beat the Blue Jays 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Charlie Caskey:

The Jays would be idiotic to call him up.

Jay Blue:

I agree with Charlie.

Justin Jay:

Is bringing up Stroman really necessary right now? Why don’t they just let him get a taste of AAA first, since, you know… we’re trying build a winner in Buffalo.

Aaron Somers:

Maybe I should know this, but is Stroman’s future in the rotation or the ‘pen?

Justin:

MLB.com was wondering the same thing when I was looking at the Jays Top 20 prospects on their site. But judging how they use Stroman, he’s going to be a starter. I wish the Jays would take the Rays’ Price approach on this. Rays let Price try every progressive level in 2008. They put him in the pen and eased him into the starting rotation at the major league level. The Rays have done that with a few pitchers since. I think it’s a pretty nice approach.

Travis Bateman:

When his was drafted they speculated Stroman would be up (as a reliever) in September last year, so his stuff is obviously well developed…as a ticket holder for Sunday’s game, I would love to see Stroman get the call.

They’ve said they’re going to let Stroman start until he fails, but a lot of people seem to think he’s destined for the ‘pen.

Aaron:

He’s not already on the 40-man is he?

Justin:

He’s not.

Jay:

I just talked to Stroman on Sunday (interview will be on my podcast tomorrow). Basically, I think he wants to start, and I think it’s better for the Jays to stretch him out and get him the regular work and innings at least in the minors. I talked to some people who really like the way his changeup has developed, which is what he really needs to be an effective ML starter. One scout that I talked to (I think he was with the Athletics) thinks he’s going to have a long major league career but didn’t specify whether it was in the pen or in the rotation.

I think it can go either way at this point, but obviously they want to try him as a starter because they’ll get more value from him in that case.

Aaron:

Great insight. Thanks Jay.

Alex Dineley:

From what I had read and seen his stuff would play as a starter or closer, only question is he’s a fairly small guy so the issue was if he would have the durability to start.

Jay:

Thanks Aaron.

@Alex – Yeah. he talks about it a bit, but people I’ve talked to think he’s pretty durable and doesn’t have a particularly strenuous delivery/mechanics (although I haven’t seen him live since Spring Training).

I think that the whole generalization about needing big guys to log a lot of innings is true until it isn’t. There are lots of exceptions and big guys get hurt a lot too. If Stroman’s standing up to the strain (no injury problems so far this year as a starter since the end of May) then why not continue having him pitch in the rotation until he can’t. That’s kind of with any pitcher — they’re healthy until they get hurt. And most of them end up getting hurt at some point.

Charlie:

The Jays are doing the right thing by stretching him out as a starter. What they now need to do is be patient and let him get a decent amount of minor league starts under his belt before any rash call-ups. With him not on the 40, they’ll burn an option by calling him up. They’ve already made one mistake in that regard with Nolin, no need to burn another.

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If you aren’t already familiar with Jay Blue’s own site Blue Jays From Away make sure to keep your eye out the next couple days. He made the trip down to New Hampshire last weekend and has some great interviews lined up for the BJFA podcast tomorrow, which will include Stroman, Kevin Nolan, Adam Loewen and Sean Nolin. And dont’ forget to keep up on your Toronto Blue Jays affiliates with Jay’s daily Minor League Report and Charlie’s Organizational Filler (In) here at Jay’s Journal.

Isn’t it nice to talk about baseball again?