Cleveland Indians fans apparently go in phases of who is the popular scapegoat. For years it was Carlos Santana not being a “good hitter” for some reason. It took 34 homers last year to finally endear himself to most fans (there is a small subset who want the Indians to “cut” him). So then that title was passed onto Bryan Shaw. Even though Shaw has appeared in 70+ games per year with the Indians since 2013 and has never posted an ERA of 3.24, whenever Shaw allows a run, he’s a disaster. And there’s still the “Cody Allen makes me nervous” crowd.
Then there’s Trevor Bauer, who doesn’t even need to throw a pitch to be irrationally hated in Cleveland by many.
Whether he’s roasting “haters” and idiots on social media, giving his political opinion or playing with drones, whatever he does, people will hate him.
When he does pitch, all it takes is one inning of one game for people to say that he melts down on the mound and is a “head case” or let’s bad situations get to him on the mound sticks around every start and it’s all anyone can focus on. Just like if Santana strikes out with the bases loaded, or Shaw walks a batter or Allen allows a base runner during a save, perceptions are hard to change. Unfortunately for Bauer, he also has come off as combative on social media (ed. note: Bauer hasn’t tweeted since March 22, so even this stigma has been hard to kill).
I’ve never felt like one of the prerequisites for enjoying watching an athlete compete was that I had to agree with their opinions on things. Nobody agrees on everything and if their opinions on certain topics bother you, then don’t make them a role model. Most athletes shouldn’t be role models. Yes, it’s nice when your favorite athlete is a public relations darling, but if they aren’t, provided they aren’t being Aaron Hernandez or Aroldis Chapman away from the field, that’s OK, too.
Politics aside, some people don’t like Bauer’s drone hobby or the way he isn’t afraid to trade social media barbs with tough guys who @ him over his on field performance. To me, none of that matters. I’ve always been fascinated by Bauer’s talent, approach and ideas on baseball and pitching. Between the lines, all anyone should care about is if he gives the team the best chance to win that he can. If you don’t want to hear his opinions or have your kids see them, nobody is forcing you. When the game is over, he goes on with his life and so should you. Don’t glorify Bauer or any other athlete because you agree with them on certain subjects. Don’t demonize them if they don’t.
When you put your bias and narrative aside, you get to enjoy three pretty good starts by Bauer that show he’s starting to make some serious progress this season.
In three starts Bauer has walked just five over 17 innings and carries a 4.0 BB-K ratio. Three of those walks came against the Twins on Thursday, two of which were in the fourth inning that also included a balk where he slipped on the mound. Bauer, like every other pitching on Thursday, dealt with what wasn’t a great strike zone from Alan Porter.
There were at least three, possibly even four, strikes that Bauer should have had when you consider that Roberto Perez is one of the best catchers in baseball at gaining the high strike.
That was Bauer’s worst inning, he allowed two hits, two walks and a balk. The balk and a sac fly led to two runs in an inning he threw 38 pitches. In the past that may have been it for Bauer and he may not have finished the fourth or or fifth. Instead, he made some other good pitches and held the damage in check. While his numbers on the surface make his performance look worse than it is, the peripherals give plenty of reason to be excited.
Bauer’s swinging strike rate was up to 10.3% (in a small sample size of two starts games) coming into his third start. The contact rate against him had gone from 79.5% to 75.8% through those two starts.
He cruised until the sixth inning in his first start and the wheels came off with two outs. Then in his second start, Miguel Cabrera argued about Bauer’s location in his second start and it affected Bauer enough to work all hitters away most of the rest of the night. He had pitched well outside of the three run homer he allowed to Cabrera later on. Of course, we can’t Butch Davis his performance. Despite Cabrera’s whining, Bauer should have kept throwing inside and not let the hitter dictate his plan of attack and flow of the game.
Command, consistency and avoiding the damaging big innings is what has always stopped Bauer from showing the form that made him the third overall pick in the 2011 draft. His reliance on the two-seam fastball oddly enough hasn’t made his ground ball rate spike but it’s helping him get called strikes in the way Corey Kluber does with his sinker.
Seven of the 25 two-seam fastball’s Bauer threw on Thursday were called strikes and also got two swinging strikes. He also threw his curve 24 times, getting four swinging strikes (his most of any pitch on the day) and four called strikes. The development of Bauer’s two-seam and his ability to throw the curveball for strikes or ball when he wants has been a huge part of his success. He also threw first pitch strikes to 13 of 25 hitters faced.
What’s even more, coming into his third start, Bauer’s BABIP against was .400, his stranded runner rate was 54.7% (71.1% is his career average). Of course in just 10.1 innings recorded, none of these numbers are anywhere near normal but the fact that they should come down bodes well for Bauer.
If Bauer produces more starts like he did on Thursday, a lot of people who refuse to watch an athlete without being able to leave old perceptions, narratives behind and leave an athlete’s world views out of their playing performance will miss out on what could be his breakout year.
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