Trevor Bauer

Trevor Bauer
Bauer with the Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians – No. 47
Starting pitcher
Born: (1991-01-17) January 17, 1991
North Hollywood, California
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 28, 2012, for the Arizona Diamondbacks
MLB statistics
(through 2018 season)
Win–loss record 59–47
Earned run average 3.94
Strikeouts 926
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Trevor Andrew Bauer (born January 17, 1991) is an American professional baseball player with the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He also pitched in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bauer starred in college for the UCLA Bruins, winning the Golden Spikes Award in 2011. That year, he was the third overall selection of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft by the Diamondbacks, and considered a top pitching prospect before making his MLB debut in 2012.[1] The Diamondbacks traded him to the Indians during the 2012–13 offseason.

Amateur career

Bauer attended Hart High School in Santa Clarita, California, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played for the UCLA Bruins baseball team.

In his freshman year at UCLA, Bauer recorded a 9–3 record with a 2.99 ERA, collecting 92 strikeouts in 105.1 innings.

Bauer was a member of the USA 2009 Baseball Collegiate National Team. He was 1–1 with a 4.67 ERA in five games (three starts), 24 strikeouts, and seven walks in ​17 1⁄3 innings. In 2009, he was named to the freshman All-America team by Baseball America.[2]

During the 2010 season, the Bruins had the best record (51–17) in school history and were the second best team in the country. The Bruins played in the 2010 College World Series and were defeated by South Carolina in the NCAA Championship Series.[3] In 2010, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, presented annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country by USA Baseball.[4]

In 2011, Bauer was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year and to the All-Pac-12 First Team. He was also the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's National Player of the Year. He was named the District IX Player of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and College Player of the Year by Baseball America.[5]

In his junior year, Bauer went 13–2 with a 1.25 ERA in 16 starts. He set a nation-leading and Pac-12 single-season record of 203 strikeouts. He finished the season with nine consecutive complete games and established new records at UCLA, including 460 career strikeouts, 34 wins, and ​373 1⁄3 pitched innings. Bauer was the recipient of the Golden Spikes Award,[6] and the National Pitcher of the Year Award.[7]

Professional career

"He came right after guys. After a couple of guys got on in the second inning, he had that adrenaline going, and he pitched out of it. He used all his pitches which is what everyone wanted to see, and he threw them all very well."

Visalia Rawhide catcher Mark Reed, August 2011[8]

Arizona Diamondbacks

Bauer was selected third overall in the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks.[9] On July 25, he signed a major league contract with the Diamondbacks, being added to the 40-man roster.[10] He made his professional debut with the Class-A Advanced Visalia Rawhide.[11] In the game, Bauer pitched two innings, allowing one hit, striking out three batters and walked one.[8] He made three starts in total in Visalia, pitching in nine innings and allowing three runs on seven hits. However, he struck out 17 of the 39 batters he faced,[12] earning himself a promotion to the Double-A Mobile BayBears on August 13.[13]

In four starts at AA Mobile, Bauer pitched ​16 2⁄3 innings, striking out 26, but walked eight batters and had a 7.56 ERA.[14] He received his first win as a professional August 20, 2011 in a 13–6 victory over the Jacksonville Suns. He was named to appear in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game.[15]

Bauer made his major league debut for the Diamondbacks on June 28, 2012, against the Atlanta Braves. He went 4 innings, struck out 3 batters, and gave up 5 hits in a no-decision. He got his first major league win on July 8, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On July 18, 2012, Bauer was optioned back to Triple-A Reno Aces after posting a 1–2 record and 6.06 ERA. The organization rested Bauer for two weeks to keep his arm lively, and he responded by posting six shutout innings in his first start back on August 6.[16]

Cleveland Indians

On December 11, 2012 he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in a three team deal. Bauer went to Cleveland with Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw in exchange for Didi Gregorius, Tony Sipp and Lars Anderson. The Indians also acquired Drew Stubbs in a deal that sent Shin-Soo Choo and Jason Donald to Cincinnati to complete the deal.[17] On June 16, 2015, Bauer got his first hit as a batter against the Chicago Cubs' pitcher Jake Arrieta in the top of the 5th inning at Wrigley Field.[18][19] During the July 3, 2015, game against the Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher Antonio Bastardo, Bauer imitated his teammates batting stances (Jason Kipnis, Mike Avilés, and Ryan Raburn) in the top of the 7th inning and drew a walk.[20][21]

On October 17, 2016, Bauer left Game 3 of the 2016 American League Championship Series due to being cut by a drone on October 14, 2016.

On October 5, 2017, Bauer pitched 5 and 1/3rd innings against the New York Yankees without giving up a hit, setting a new Indians postseason record. [22]

Pitching style

Bauer said he has patterned his overhand delivery after his role model two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum.[23] He said he has studied so much video of Lincecum that he can by memory play back frame by frame Lincecum striking out 18 UCLA batters while he was a junior at the University of Washington. "He's been a huge influence on my career and my delivery," Bauer said.

Bauer features an eclectic and large variety of pitches. According to an article in Sports Illustrated, he has experimented with up to 19 different pitches.[1] He explained in an interview why he features so many pitches:

I'm very passionate about my craft and I've always been into science and discovery and all that stuff, so I'm always trying to find a way to get better from season to season. And throwing more pitches is a way that I've found to.... The more pitches that I have, that have different speeds and move differently, the more confusion it creates for the hitter. And if I throw all of them out of the same tunnel and make them look the same through 20 feet of flight ... obviously, I'm going to be a lot tougher to hit.[24]

According to Bauer, he throws the following pitches:[24]

  • Four-seam fastball – thrown at 93–94 mph (tops out at 98)[25]
  • Changeups – thrown 80–84 mph. Bauer says, "I have two variations of it; I can make it cut or I can make it run."
  • Curveballs – "curve one" thrown at 74–78 mph, "curve two" thrown at 80–81.[26] According to Bauer, "I have two different grips, one that I use for a strike pitch and then another grip I use when I really want to bury it."
  • "Dot slider" – a traditional slider, 84–86 mph
  • "Circle slider" – a slider with movement more similar to a cutter. Bauer: "I use that one primarily early in the count to hit tunnels to righties, disguise it, make it look like a fastball or a changeup and keep it in the zone."
  • "Reverse slider" – thrown at 88–91 mph, it is designed to act as a "left-handed cut fastball ... It's a cross between a sinking fastball and a screwball—it's a little bit slower than a sinking fastball and a little bit harder than a traditional screwball would be."
  • Split-finger fastball – a traditional splitter, 86–88 mph

Bauer has gained some celebrity for his unusual workout and warmup regimen,[27][28] which includes long toss at distances of up to 400 feet. Bauer is also known to study his pitching mechanics using high-speed cameras.[1] He has posted a series of videos on YouTube showing his pitching mechanics and repertoire in slow motion.[29]

Personal life

Outside of baseball, Bauer collects drones. Bauer suffered an injury to his right pinky finger while repairing a drone in October 2016.[30] His injury forced his pitching start in the 2016 American League Championship Series to be pushed back from Game 2 to Game 3. Bauer had to leave after the first inning of Game 3 when the stitches used to treat his cut opened up.[31] The Reno Aces, who Bauer played for in the minors, gave out a bobblehead of his likeness throwing a drone at an August 2017 home game.[32]

Bauer is an active Twitter user and has voiced his support of conspiracy theories such as climate change denial and the birther movement associated with Barack Obama.[33] Bauer also criticised American media for a liberal bias in its coverage of Donald Trump.[33] On May 22, 2018 Bauer was accused of carving BD 911 into the pitcher's mound, a reference to a conspiracy theory that indicated "Bush Did 911". Bauer later explained on Twitter that he wrote BD 91.1 and that the numbers and letters were meaningful to him personally and completely unrelated to the September 11 attacks.[34]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jenkins, Lee (August 15, 2011). "Trevor Bauer Will Not Be Babied". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  2. ↑ "2009 Freshman All-America Team". Baseball America. June 30, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  3. ↑ Shandel, Richardson (June 29, 2010). "South Carolina defeats UCLA, 2-1, for baseball title". LA Times. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Meet the 2010 Golden Spikes Award Candidates". Goldenspikesaward.com. June 8, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  5. ↑ ""Louisville Slugger's" All-American Baseball Teams". Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. June 2, 2011. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Trevor Bauer wins Golden Spikes Award". ESPN.com. ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company, 80% Hearst Corporation, 20%). July 15, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ "UCLA's Trevor Bauer Earns National Pitcher of the Year Honors". uclabruins.com. Archived from the original on July 6, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Bauer impresses in pro debut". Visalia Times-Delta. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  9. ↑ "D-backs get UCLA right-hander Trevor Bauer third overall in Draft". Mlb.mlb.com. March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  10. ↑ Nicholson-Smith, Ben. "D'Backs To Sign Trevor Bauer". MLBTradeRumors.com. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Trevor Bauer". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Trevor Bauer". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Bauer train likely to depart Visalia, head to Double-A". Visalia Times-Delta. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Trevor Bauer Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  15. ↑ Mayo, Jonathan (March 12, 2013). "Prospects pack rosters for 2012 All-Star Futures Game". Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  16. ↑ Gilbert, Steve (August 7, 2012). "After brief shutdown, Bauer returns to hill". MLB.com. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  17. ↑ Tribe deals Choo to Reds, gets Bauer from D-backs
  18. ↑ "Gamecast". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Cleveland Indians". Facebook. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  20. ↑ Stone, Avery (July 3, 2015). "Indians' Trevor Bauer imitates teammates' batting stances". USA Today. Gannett Company, Inc. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Cleveland vs Pittsburgh". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  22. ↑ Indians' Trevor Bauer no-hits Yankees for 5 1/3 innings. NJ.com October 5, 2017. Accessed October 5, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Arizona Diamondbacks draft pick Trevor Bauer takes key from Tim Lincecum". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  24. 1 2 Pentis, Andrew (February 14, 2012). "Prospect Pitch: Bauer reveals repertoire". MiLB.com. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  25. ↑ "FanGraphs Trevor Bauer Pitch FX". Fangraphs.com. Retrieved Mar 2, 2018.
  26. ↑ Schwartze, Michael (June 28, 2012). "Trevor Bauer Scouting Report with Video". MLB Dirt. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  27. ↑ Kaduk, Kevin (March 14, 2012). "Trevor Bauer's long toss routine is an amazing thing to watch (Video)". Yahoo!. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  28. ↑ Chen, Albert (May 7, 2012). "Dylan Bundy and Trevor Bauer could change game by long-tossing - Albert Chen - SI.com". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  29. ↑ "BauerOutage's channel". YouTube. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  30. ↑ Berg, Ted (October 14, 2016). "The Indians pushed back Trevor Bauer's ALCS start after he cut himself fixing a drone". USA Today. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  31. ↑ Joseph, Andrew (October 17, 2016). "Trevor Bauer's drone did some seriously disgusting damage to his finger". USA Today. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  32. ↑ Philipps, Shane (August 14, 2017). "Trevor Bauer Drone Bobblehead, Pride Night Featured In Aces Second-To-Last Homestand". Reno Aces. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  33. 1 2 Cwik, Chris (March 8, 2018). "Trevor Bauer calls MLB 'disingenuous' for saying players don't have to stick to sports". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  34. ↑ Carroll, Charlotte (2018-05-22). "Trevor Bauer Responds to 'BD 911' Controversy, Calls Accusations 'unfounded'". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
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