Stanford freshman pitcher Christian Lim is off to a fantastic start this season for the Cardinal. The lefty from Nashville has been throwing smoke like he’s barbecuing, striking out 54 batters in 43.2 innings pitched. In eight starts, he has a 3-2 record and a 2.89 ERA. His opponents have a .189 batting average, struggling to get contact like a blindfolded kid swinging at a piñata. With the way Lim is pitching, it’s clear that the Cardinal have an ace on the mound that they can build around for the coming seasons.
What makes Lim’s pitching so good is his consistency. He has really good technique and is consistent with his release point. And on top of that, he knows how to mix it up by throwing a good changeup.
“He tunnels the ball real well,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said of Lim. “Throws his pitches off of the same release point. The changeup is a weapon pitch for him for sure and he’s just gotten better with just setting up hitters. Coach Eager does a great job of calling the game and I tell him, let Coach Eager do the driving, right? And he’ll be fine and getting right and left handed hitters out and it’s just outstanding.”
In his most recent outing against Washington State, Lim had a no-hit bid going through 7.1 innings. Eventually the Cougars got on base and Lim gave up a run, which ended his day after 8.0 innings. Even though he didn’t get the no-hitter, Lim was happy to get the win. He’s not motivated at all by stats or personal accolades. He’s all in for his team and his teammates feed off that positive energy.
“No, I was just trying to get a win for my brothers in the dugout,” Lim said when asked if the no-hit bid was on his mind. “I mean, that’s all it’s about. There’s no better friends in the world than the guys I have right now right here. So, I was just trying to get a win for them. Nothing on the scoreboard really mattered. The only thing that mattered to me was the actual score. No hits, no walks, nothing like that.”
“When we have a dog like Christian Lim on the mound, we’re going to war with him,” Stanford sophomore infielder Jimmy Nati proclaimed. “The energy that he brings every single inning, it just pushes you through the whole game and we want to win for him.”
One major league pitcher who has had an influence on Lim and his approach to the game is two-time All-Star Marcus Stroman of the New York Yankees. Even though Stroman is a righty, Lim likes the way he pitches and takes a lot of inspiration from watching him do his thing on the mound.
“He’s not a lefty, but I like to watch Marcus Stroman pitch a lot,” Lim said. “I like the way he kind of goes about the game. The fire he brings and yeah, I just like how he throws a lot.”
Stanford pitching coach Thomas Eager has been a really positive influence on Lim as well. Eager has done a great job of helping Lim find himself and just be confident in who he is. That’s really taken the pressure off of Lim and allowed him to just dial in.
“He’s just been trying to get me to kinda find myself,” Lim said of Eager. “Early on I struggled a little bit kind of pitching a little bit uncomfortable and after a couple outings, I started to really find my groove. Eags has just been really great in just supporting me through everything and really just letting me be me.”
Being a starting pitcher is never easy. Especially when you are a freshman. Lim admitted that he had his doubts early on, but as the season has progressed, he’s become confident in who he is. Rather than seeing himself as a freshman, he just seems himself as a baseball player. That’s really been the key to him gaining that confidence.
“I mean, early on in the year, going on back what I was saying before about my early struggles, I felt like I kinda put a lot of pressure on myself to live up to being starting pitcher as a freshman,” Lim said. “But after the second or third inning I just told myself I don’t even care about how old I am, how old the other guys are. I’m just a pitcher just the same as any other baseball game that’s ever been. After that, I told that to myself, it’s been really comfortable out there.”
While Lim is leading the way for the freshman arms at Sunken Diamond, there’s a lot of talent that the Cardinal have added this year. Lim says that the bond he has developed with his fellow freshmen has really helped. They’re all really close and are always rooting for each other to be the best they can be.
“I mean, it’s easy to say like everybody, but I mean, Aidan Keenan and Jack Svinth, they’ve been two of real rocks that have been really supportive of me and they’re easy to joke around with, just get along with, all that," Lim said. “None of us really feel like freshmen. We’re just baseball players and we’ve been able to support each other through everything. Ups and downs. And I feel like we’ve just become a really tight-knit group as a class and as a whole.”
Something else that helps Lim is the fact that he’s a lefty. While the numbers change every season with some variation, roughly 70% of all major league pitchers are right handed. This of course means that just 30% are left handed. That gives Lim a distinct advantage as he’s able to give batters a look that they aren’t nearly as comfortable seeing.
“I mean, I like it, it’s the only way I know how to pitch,” Lim said of being a lefty. “It’s cool to just give the hitters a different look. I mean, our staff is a really right-handed dominant staff. So, just going out there and giving the hitters a little different look. On the other side of the plate. It’s been nice.”
What Lim most enjoys about being a pitcher is the one-on-one aspect of facing a batter. He enjoys the mental battle that comes with it and the need to stay locked in for every pitch he throws.
“The mental battle for sure,” Lim said of what he most likes about being a pitcher. “Gotta be locked in from pitch one. Especially like today in those long innings, those late innings, you gotta really dig deep and all of that. I feel like it’s me versus the hitter. Like it’s a team sport, but I feel like at the end of the day, it’s a one-on-one fight and that’s how I like to compete.”
Coming from Nashville, Lim has had a lot of getting used to in terms of culture. He misses the barbecue and some of the formalities that accompany the South. On the flip side, he loves the laid back culture of the West Coast and the chance to eat really good tacos. He likes both places a lot and the chance to experience something new.
“It’s night and day different! It’s night and day different,” Lim said of the differences. “I mean, first of all the food is a lot different. I mean, Nashville it’s a lot of soul food. A lot of barbecue. Stuff like that. I never really had honestly like good Mexican food until coming out here. Like tacos. Tacos are fire.
“But I mean, just the overall environment in Nashville is a little different, too. Out here is a little more laid back. In the South, it's a lot more, I have to say yes sir, no sir, yes mam, no mam. Out here it’s just kinda everyone is my friend and it’s just been a lot different. But I love both places a lot.”
As for what he most likes about being at Stanford, Lim likes the whole vibe. The weather is great, but it’s really the people that make it special for him.
“It’s easy to say the weather. I mean, it can’t really get better than this, you know,” Lim said with a smile. “But honestly, the people here are great. I mean, they’re some of the smartest, coolest people I’ve ever met in my life and I’m just really happy to be here.”
On the academic front, Lim is challenging himself in the classroom. He recently took a computer science class and found a way to pass with flying colors despite the challenges that it posed. That’s something that he’s really proud of.
“Last quarter I took a computer science class. That was CS 106A. That was really tough, honestly,” Lim said. “I don’t know how I made it out of there alive. But yeah, that’s probably been the most interesting class for me. Just being new to computer science and everything.”
On the whole, Christian Lim is making the most of his first year on The Farm. He’s doing well in the classroom and on the mound all while embracing a new way of life. It’ll be fun to see how the rest of the season goes for him and how he progresses.
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