I love Trevor Bauer and Marcus Stroman from a fantasy perspective. When Bauer got his second call-up in mid-May I said he would be a top 35-40 starting pitcher. That recommendation was based on how good his raw stuff is, his prior start in the majors (against the Padres), the minor league numbers and most importantly, those good numbers were due to mechanical changes he made.
Prior to 2014 his biggest roadblock was he couldn’t throw strikes consistently. I’ve watched every one of Bauer’s major league starts and I’ve been impressed with the improvements he’s made from 2013, but Bauer was still a work in progress. There have been bursts where he would look great one inning and lose his command the next. In each start the command has been more consistent.
The most frustrating part about watching Bauer pitch is, at times, he tries too hard to make the perfect pitch and strike everyone out. This was a much bigger factor when he was a prospect in the Diamondbacks organization. He doesn’t do it as much this year, but he did it enough times that it was something that was noticeable and it was hindering his ability to go deep into games; he was throwing a lot of pitches per batter. Ideally a starting pitcher wants to induce a lot of weak contact from batters because it keeps the defense on their toes and most importantly, it keeps the pitch count down, which allows them to go deeper in the game.
On Friday (June 6) was the best start I’ve seen from Bauer all year. The box score doesn’t look impressive as he allowed 4 ER, 5 H and 2 BB over 6.1 innings. However, all those runs came in the second inning with two outs. He got a little unlucky as two hits were a little fluky in nature. After the second inning he only allowed two base runners and struck out five. What was the most impressive is he tried to induce weak contact instead of trying strike every one. If he becomes a dominant pitcher, this is the start I’ll point to as to when he started to become a pitcher.
Like Bauer, when Stroman received his second call-up I extremely anxious to see him pitch as a starter. After the start I said he would be a top 40 starting pitcher the rest of the year if he stayed in the rotation. Friday’s start wasn’t as impressive as the first start (which is expected considering the quality of teams he faced), but it was still really good. The primary reason why the second start wasn’t as good was because the slider didn’t have the same bite to it. About half balls in play he allowed have been fly balls, which is due to his height. Playing the Rogres Centre and being a fly ball pitcher isn’t ideal, but I think his fastball command is good enough to limit how many balls leave the yard. Overall, he has elite level stuff and has shown really good command and I’m sticking by my original evaluation of a top 40 starting pitcher.
