Junius Worth
David Kerr
Charlie Nehl
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Andrew Martin
Jonathan C. Mitchell
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Daniel Marino
Michael Schwartze
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Spencer Schneier
William J. Tasker
Last week I was able to see Trevor Bauer pitch in one of his last starts before his major league debut. He pitched against the Tacoma Rainiers on June 19th. It’s taken me a while to get this report up because of the difficulties I have had with my video editing software but it is finally up. You can see the video I got at the bottom of the page as well as a video of a really nice behind the back play made by Bauer.
As far as the start, I was hoping to see a little more out of Bauer but he was still very impressive. His final line on the night was 5IP 5H 2ER 4BB and 7K. The command just wasn’t there for Bauer tonight as he had a lot of deep counts and his total pitch count on the night was 105 pitches. I’m really glad I was able to see Bauer pitch before he got called up and he really put on a show in his warm up. He did stretches that I did not know people could do, did some stuff with a funky poll thing, threw some long toss from in which he ends up throwing foul poll to foul poll and then he finished things up with his bullpen. You can read my scouting report on him after the jump.
I’ll start with Bauer’s fastball. It is a very explosive pitch but his velocity was a little bit down from the reports I have read. It was ranging everywhere from 91-95 and it touched 96 a couple of times. Blake Beavan and Barry Enright were sitting behind me charting pitches and they were talking about the decline in his velocity from spring training where he was throwing 97. You have to imagine Bauer is experiencing some fatigue because this is his first full season with his intense workout. Despite the decline, the pitch was still impressive. The velocity is certainly there but the pitch lacks movement and is pretty flat. Maybe he can add some movement as he develops more but it still is a plus pitch. The command of the pitch defiantly needs work though as he often had trouble locating it. Due to the lack of movement on his fastball, he will really need to work on the control. Based on his overall numbers at AAA, I’m assuming his command is generally better than what I saw on that night.
Bauer’s curveball is his best pitch and it really impressed me. It is a true 12-6 curve and it sat around 74-78. It had hard late break but he did hang the pitch a few times. It should be a plus offering at the next level and a great swing and miss pitch. Bauer also featured another curve that looked slightly different. During his bullpen, I heard his catcher ask him if that was “curve one” or “curve two”. Curve one was the one I listed above but curve two was a little more slurvy but still had impressive sharp break. This pitch sat at about 80-81 and he used it a lot more when he had two strikes on a batter.
Bauer also features a slider that looks like it could be a plus pitch. It has hard, sweeping break and was almost like a cutter. It is just another impressive breaking ball in Bauer’s arsenal. There is room for improvement in terms of command and consistency the potential certainly is there with the pitch.
The last pitch of Bauer’s that I saw was a change up that almost looked like a splitter at times. I was a fan of this pitch and I think it has the makings to be an above average pitch. It was sitting around 84-86 MPH and it had some nice late arm side fade.
Overall, I was impressed with Bauer’s stuff but I would have liked to see more command/control out of him. He has 3 potential plus pitches and I think he has front of the rotation potential. Bauer is set to make his major league debut today. It will be interesting to see how he fairs but I think he will be there to stick in the rotation. Below is some video that I got of Bauer from the start. The first is a shot of an impressive behind the back grab that he made on a ball hit back to him. The second video is his start which features a look at his pre game long toss. Enjoy.
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis, On the Farm - Prospects Tagged: | Arizona Diamondbacks, Prospects, Trevor Bauer
I thoroughly enjoyed both your video of one of his last starts as well as your in depth written scouting report. However, being a fan of his from afar (I’m from Boston, MA) for a long time… I’ve been watching him pitch since his sophomore year at UCLA (I saw him start against Cal Poly in 2010); I will debate a few things that you wrote that I see as a none issue.
You mentioned that his fastball was down from 97 in Spring Training to anywhere between 91 to 95 and touching 96 a few times and didn’t have much movement and seemed flat. In SP he was only pitching a couple innings at a time and was never stretched out beyond that. So, it shouldn’t be that surprising that his velocity has dipped after going deeper into games, though his effectiveness has not decreased. It should also be noted, now knowing after the fact (since it was revealed after his MLB debut) that he has been dealing with a groin issue. Obliviously, for someone that relies so heavily on the power and rotation of his legs, to lose them is detrimental to both his location, mechanics and velocity.
As for the lack of movement of his fastball, that is by design. If you were able to read the MiBL article on him explaining his 9 pitch repertoire that he doesn’t want his fastball to move so that it’s complements his other pitches by way of looking the same for the first 20ft where the hitter has to commit.
Additionally, he throws a curve ball and two sliders; three if you consider his reverse slider, a split and a straight change-up. His ‘dot’ slider which has more downward action, the second is his circle slider, it acts like a traditional cutter with more horizontal movement. The reverse slider, he designed it after reading Perry Husband’s Effective Velocity, he needed a pitch to move away from a left handed hitter and into a right handed hitter at a certain speed. However, in the videos ive seen he just uses it against lefties. His split is his, as he puts it a put away pitch that doesn’t find many bats. It’s sometimes inconsistent but with its effectiveness he will continue to throw it. Finally, his most consistent pitch, his change up. He uses multiple grips to cut and run the ball. Similar to Tim Lincecum’s change up.
If you have the opportunity, definitely go see him pitch and record whatever you can, including his hour and twenty minute warm up. Thanks again and keep up with the scouting report.
Really appreciate the feedback and information.
I have not read that article but I will have to check it out. I believe it that he has a 9 pitch repertoire because there were so many pitches that were hard to categorize. It would be pretty awesome to see him pitch again because I really don’t think you can totally get a feel for his stuff after just one start. But I doubt I will get that chance as I think he’ll be sticking in the D Backs rotation.
Again, I appreciate the feedback. I’ll have reports up any day now on Hultzen, Franklin, Hechavarria, and Gose from the recent Rainiers – 51;s series.
Absolutely! The other guy I’ve been able to watch is the Baltimore Orioles highly touted prospect, Dylan Bundy. I’ll be looking forward to seeing other videos of these guys throwing and your scouting report in the coming weeks.
[...] improve his command and make sure his arm can withstand his intense workouts. -Michael Schwartze Trevor Bauer Scouting Report. Trevor Bauer [...]