Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman twirled six shutout innings against the Red Sox on Sunday (TOR 6, BOS 1), and he continues to position himself as a strong trade candidate leading up to the July 31 deadline. In the midst of dominating the Red Sox in his most recent start, Stroman, as he often does, flashed some emotion on the mound.
Here he is following his final pitch of the day:
As you see, Stroman celebrated the strikeout, his sixth of the day against only one walk, and even directed some of that enthusiasm toward the Boston dugout. That prompted the Sox's broadcast booth to briefly criticize Stroman:
As Rob Friedman notes in his tweet, Eckersley, back in his days as one of the most dominant closers in baseball history, was a demonstrative sort on the mound. Exhibit B:
In that light, Eckersley's one-word critique of Stroman -- however brief and off-hand it was -- rings a bit hollow. This, of course, wasn't lost on Stroman:
And:
More from Stroman:
This is a bit of a recurring discussion with Stroman, and at this point he's to be taken at his word when he says he's not particularly concerned with the criticisms. As for Eckersley, you'll recall that almost two years ago he had a bit of a dust-up with David Price, although the blame in that seemed to be squarely on the player.