His career as defensive replacement is cemented with his pre-game ritual of long-toss from foul pole to foul pole. Rob Neyer (Member him? I think he used to write for ESPN.) suggested Trevor Bauer could even make the Guinness Book of World Records if he could motivate one of those lazy Guinness record keepers off their butt and out to the field. The current record is held by a Canadian minor leaguer, Glen Gorbous, from 1957. When the ball left his hand it was estimated at 120 MPH and landed 445 feet and 10 inches away. A Canadian may hold the record, but it’s not measured in meters. Natch! During the spring, Bauer threw approximately 450-475 feet away. I have a theory. Glen Gorbous’s brother works for Guinness. Here you can see where Bauer learned this long-toss drill. (Re: that video, If you saw Alan Jaeger and Jim Vatcher in those outfits anywhere in the world, how long would it take you to realize they were baseball coaches? About four seconds? “Yo, Vatch, you see my sunglasses?” “Jaeg, they’re on your hat. Like they always are.” If you’re caught outside of your house with sunglasses on your hat and don’t know at least seven baseball drills, you will get wedgied.) Okay, unless you have a category in your league for “Pre-game Rituals” all of that info gets you nowhere. So, what can we expect of Trevor Bauer for 2013 fantasy baseball?
As of right now, Trevor Bauer is ranked fifth overall for all prospects by MLB.com. (One through four is Jurickson Profar, Dylan Bundy, Wil Myers, Taijuan Walker.) That is, of course, for all baseball, not fantasy baseball. Our prospect writer, Scott, had Bauer ninth in the preseason for fantasy, and said at the All-Star break that Bauer was now the number one fantasy baseball pitching prospect. I can get behind that. He has the stuff for one, that’s for sure. Everyone compares Bauer to Lincecum. They meant that as a compliment. Trevor Bauer is the Rich Little of Lincecum impersonators. I mean, it’s right on. The Diamondbacks will give him every opportunity to break camp with the club, and I think he does. In Triple-A, he had a 10+ K-rate and near-four walk rate. Final Triple-A numbers were 2.42 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 130.1 innings. In the majors, the strikeouts will make up for the walks, but only so much. He looks like another guy that came up in the Diamondbacks system –> Max Scherzer, and it took him four years to not use fantasy teams as his own personal toilet. Bauer will have high Ks, crazy upside and might call crap on a table a Pu-Pu platter. In 2013, I’ll give him the line of 6-7/3.85/1.38/168 in 160 innings, but because of the upside, I will be looking at him late in all leagues.
