Stronach Wants More

Tim Stronach, 22, is back in Brooklyn this summer after beginning the year as a reliever/spot starter in St. Lucie. Now in this third season with the Cyclones, Stronach perseveres by continuing the refinement of his game, looking for success that could elevate him around every corner.

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In his third year as a pro, right-hander Tim Stronach is in his second season with the Brooklyn Cyclones, a team that's almost always entirely composed of recent draftees.

Outside of his last start, in which he allowed five runs and retired just one batter, the 22-year-old Worcester State (Mass.) grad has pitched well for Brooklyn this season.

He's 2-5 with a 4.05 ERA in eight games, six of which were outright starts. He's struck out 29 and walked just 14, helping Brooklyn keep close in a New York-Penn League McNamara Division that had four teams within four games of one another as of Saturday. But at times, Stronach can't shake the feeling that, at this stage of his career, he should be elsewhere.

"They want to win here" says Stronach. "They tell us we send players here that we know can help us win. But at the same time, it's like my third year here. I made a club out of spring training last year and then this year I was put in extended spring training. It kind of feels like I'm going backwards, but they tell me they want me here, I can help us win."

The 6-foot-5 Stronach is not overpowering, throwing an "average to a just-a-tick-above-average" fastball according to Cyclones pitching coach Hector Berrios. He also throws a sinker, slider and changeup. The changeup has been Stronach's most improved pitch, and if he's consistent with his release point, Berrios feels all of his offerings can be above average.

"The sinker has come a long way," Stronach says. "The changeup this year has probably come the most, I worked on that with Hector too, as far as more consistency. I could throw a good one every now and then, but last year it was really hit or miss."

The results and roles for Stronach, however, have continued to be inconsistent. He finished with a 3.74 ERA in 16 starts for Kingsport in his 2006 pro debut, then struggled in 14 starts for Savannah to start 2007. With an ERA over 5, he was sent to Brooklyn, where he made some starts outright, and piggybacked the others in relief to a 3.41 ERA in 31 2/3 innings.

After Extended Spring Training this year, Stronach went to St. Lucie and again saw his ERA rise over 5.00. He was told he was going to Savannah right before the Cyclones' season started. With Savannah, Stronach made one appearance—a strong four-inning start—he was sent right back to Brooklyn, to piggyback again.

Stronach says he prefers to start games from the beginning, and that coming in with runners on and the score anything else but 0-0 can be a little unnerving, but that in the end, he simply wants to pitch.

"As long as I'm getting my innings, I'm happy," he says. "It's not really different [to piggyback], you still say you're a starter."

Stronach and Berrios worked this spring to prevent him from throwing across his body, which had him leaving the ball up arm-side often the past two years.

"He had a tendency to drift and it's something that we've been working on since Spring Training," Berrios says. "I think it's turning his whole career around."

"It's a lot more fluent when I throw, I get the ball down, and for the most part I feel like I have a better control when I throw in a straight line drive instead of across my body," Stronach says.

Stronach thinks his mechanics were the reason he missed a month last year with bicep tendonitis.

Before his most recent start, the most runs Stronach had allowed in an outing for Brooklyn this season was three, which had happened just twice. He too credits his mechanical changes for the turnaround, as well as the experience of having played in Brooklyn a season ago.

"Especially the atmosphere and the fans last year, that was my first time pitching in front of more than 2,000 people, it's helped me a lot coming back this year," he said. "I know what to expect and have no surprises when I go out there this year."

His goals with Brooklyn are to go longer into games—to become a guy who can go more than just five innings—and to let his defense do the work behind him by inducing a high number of ground balls.

Half of his outings for the Cyclones thus far have lasted at least five innings. He doesn't aspire to strikeout many, showing a good understanding of who he is as a pitcher and what he needs to do to be successful.

"That's one of the things he was lacking before, he wasn't trusting himself," Berrios said. "He wasn't competing at the level that he needed to compete to make him the best that he can be, and now he's starting to find that out."

Stronach, too, is pleased with the results, even if it's at a level he hoped he would already have mastered.

"It's bittersweet, I just go with it day by day," he said.