Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Marcus Stromen

With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 18: Marcus Stromen

Profile/Stats:

Marcus Stromen is a Junior at Duke University. He throws right handed. He was born on May 1st, 1991. He is from Medford, NY and went to the Patchogue-Medford High School. He is listed at 5'9" and 180 lbs. In his previous 2 seasons he was a swing man, and even served as the closer for Team USA in 2011 converting all 4 save opportunities, but this season he has been exclusively a starter. In 14 games started (98 innings) he is 6-5 with a 2.39 ERA, walking 26 and striking out 136, allowing a .231 opponents batting average. Also plays at the outfield and second base between starts but he has no future in the pros as a position player (.252/.324/.362 career slash line in 336 Plate Appearances) He was drafted in the 18th round of the 2009 draft by the Washington Nationals but did not sign.

Mini Scouting Report:

Marcus Stromen has three pitches: a fastball, a slider and a change up and occasionally throws a cutter. The fastball is a plus pitch, It sits in the mid 90s with bursts up to 96-97 and has excellent command and control of it. His slider is better than an average pitch sitting at the mid 80s. His changeup and cutter are works in progress. Given his statute and the fact that right now he has only 2 pitches, he is projected by some teams as a dominating reliever instead of a mid-rotation starter. There are a lot of comparisons with Tom (Flash) Gordon.

Videos/Photos:

Here is an 8:30 scouting video of Stroman while with Team USA in 2011:







Here is a 15 minute video of Stromen's start vs Boston College earlier this month (May 2012) :






Here is an interview with Stromen from his Cape Cod League days: