Stephen Strasburg pitched well against the Yankees Wednesday night. He is working on his change-up, and Dusty Baker thought it was electric. Two things struck me about the description of the outing, however (emphasis added):
Even though he took the mound against the Yankees’ cross-state traveling squad, Strasburg spun five scoreless innings, allowed six hits, walked none and pitched out of jams.
Throughout his career, Strasburg gives the appearance of getting in trouble, and letting that bother him. Maybe that’s over:
Baker said catcher Wilson Ramos directed Strasburg well through his five innings of work, particularly during one jam in which he loaded the bases with no outs. Baker said the bench was hoping for the strikeout followed by a double play, which capped a scoreless third inning. Even then, Baker noticed Strasburg wasn’t happy or emotional.
“He threw the ball well and he still came off the field shaking his head like he didn’t throw the ball well,” Baker said. “So I’m learning about Stras. Is he ever really happy? Well, we’re trying to make him happier. Just appreciate when you have a good outing, because there’s plenty of bad ones coming. And who knows, this might be the year when he doesn’t have any?”
Unemotional might be the best thing for Strasburg. Not too high when things go well, not too low when things go bad. I’ll take this as a good sign.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1RndpMP
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