We at JABO and the MLB WhipAround like Marcus Stroman. He's an interesting and cerebral kind of guy, a thinker who makes you think, much like another one of our favorites, Chris Archer of the Tampa Bay Rays.
But Marcus Stroman made a terrible error in judgment last night. What he thought was a valiant act to stand up for a teammate resulted in an act of ignorance that very nearly resulted in a devastating injury to an opposing player.
In the top of the 5th inning Danny Valencia singled to left and Jose Reyes scored from second base on a head first slide into home. The throw from left fielder Alejandro De Aza was accurate, but as Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph received the throw, his left foot came up in the air slightly and then he put it right back down and obstructed home plate. Reyes either slide into Joseph's foot or his hand was stepped on as Joseph's foot came down. We talked about this catcher's trick last month.
Either way, Reyes took exception to what happened and was visibly angry. He said something to the home plate umpire on his way back to the dugout, but was still very upset once he reached the dugout.
What I have yet to see or read anywhere is that Jose Reyes had a case to be mad. I actually think he did. It may have been unintentional, but Jose Reyes nearly injured his hand because Joseph's foot was blocking the plate, and the new rules say you can't do that. Reyes saw his clear path to home, did a head first slide and at the last second that clear path was taken away by Joseph, which is against the rules. It appeared that this was unintentional by Joseph.
Marcus Stroman did what position players love to see their pitchers do, he backed Reyes up. In the bottom of the 5th inning Stroman threw a pitch at Caleb Joseph with the likely intent to send a message, except he did it all wrong.
The pitch headed straight for Joseph's head. Joseph barely got out of the way in time. Stroman showed no remorse for the pitch and even yelled at the Orioles dugout and manager Buck Showalter as the inning ended as he was coming off the mound. Showalter was furious.
Today Stroman said the pitch was completely unintentional and that it slipped. That's a tough sell.
The combative reaction after the inning, the fact that his catcher's target was middle of the plate, that he has walked just 2.1/9 this year and has only hit 3 batters in 120.2 IP makes that story pretty difficult to believe.
I'm OK with Stroman thinking he needed to stand up for a teammate, there is a legit case for it. But those throws have to be low, near the thigh or butt. He's a good pitcher, he didn't miss that bad. Tempers flare, when you're young your temper can get the best of you which can result in some bad decisions. Let's be honest, that's what really happen here.
Stroman is lucky that pitch didn't hit Joseph in the face and resulted in an injury like the one Giancarlo Stanton suffered last week. He would have been crucified in the media and around baseball. No one would have believed his "it slipped" story. He dodged a major bullet and hopefully he learned a lesson so there will be no next time.
