"Everything I see up in my head just comes to life," Stroman rapped in the opening line of his verse of rapper Mike Stud's, "These Days Remix."
From becoming a starting pitcher and returning from ACL surgery in less than a season to, now being named opening day starter: yes, it all seems those things, dreams, up in his head do come to life.
To no one's surprise, when the Jays open the season on April 3rd in St. Petersburg against the Rays, Marcus Stroman will get the ball as the opening day pitcher, announced manager John Gibbons Wednesday morning.
At nearly 25 years-old, Stroman has been anticipating taking on this role for quite some time, becoming the fifth opening day starter in the past seven years for the Blue Jays.
"I want to be the ace," Stroman said earlier this year to Sportsnet. "I'm ready for it, I think I have a good opportunity to run with it and I would to be the guy to put an end to having a bunch of different opening day starters. I would love to be the guy who's penciled in every year. That's why I work as hard as I do."
In just his first campaign entering the season healthy (knock on wood) and on the major league roster, Stroman has been given the keys to the castle as the club's "ace." This isn't a term that should be used liberally either, but in his short time with Toronto, all Stroman has done is manifest the ace within himself. In his first season, the Stro-show tossed a respectable 130.2 innings with a laudable 3.65 ERA.
While he missed nearly all of last season with an ACL injury, Stroman was one of the game's dominant stories in 2015 as he fought his way back from injury to pitch in the Jays playoff push. In four starts he maintained a 1.67 ERA and pitched the game-clinching start against the Baltimore Orioles. By playoff time, he continued to be one of the Jays top arms as he was chosen over David Price as the Game 5 starter with the series on-the-line against the Texas Rangers.
With Price leaving in the off-season, it's now Stroman's time to shine. He has been given the reigns to assume control of the top of this rotation and take the ball every five days with the expectation, not the hope, of getting a win. Really, that's what being an ace is all about.
Whether Stroman is ready for that, I'll let you decide. If you don't think so, I'm sure that's only adding fuel to his already well-lit fire.
"I can't lie, I been on a mission
to make every single doubter eat their words up in their kitchen
Yeah, my vision is to get it while I'm living
I'll keep winning
Legendary comeback ACL incision yeah," he finished rapping.