Indians starter Trevor Bauer resides somewhere between “get it together kid” and “don’t think, it can only hurt the ballclub.” He has amazing stuff and, at times, looks poised to break out as a star. At other times his command is lacking in pretty significant ways and his approach makes you scratch your head. He’s got a lot of pitches and he hasn’t always known when to throw what.
Which makes this article from Jordan Bastian at MLB.com pretty interesting. On one level it makes you wonder if a thing you often hear pitchers say — “keep it simple” — is being ignored. On the other hand, Bauer never strikes you like your typical pitcher, and you have to wonder if maybe this isn’t a better approach for a guy like him:
Bauer detailed one of the setups that he uses in the offseason. He will have a camera in each batter’s box mounted at eye level, so he can see the hitter’s perspective. Bauer also has a camera mounted from the center-field view in order to track the flight of the ball. He then films his pitches at 240 or 480 frames per second, and he can overlay the pitches on video to see variances in the movement.
There’s color-coding overlaid on all of that, as well as analysis of other pitchers like teammates Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar and Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman. It sounds pretty intense.
Proof is in the pudding, of course. And it’ll be really interesting to see if 2015 is the year Bauer truly breaks though the way so many have thought he might some day.
