Breaking Down Trevor Bauer’s Debut

Trevor Bauer made his much-anticipated debut for the Diamondbacks yesterday.  He didn’t go five innings so he didn’t qualify for the win, but who cares?  We care about how he did on the mound, not how much his offense supported him (debate wins and losses as a true measure of pitcher’s performance now!).  In his debut, Bauer pitched four innings, gave up five hits, and allowed two runs.  Solid, but nothing to write home about.

Let’s break down Bauer’s first Major League start to see what went right and what went wrong.  We’ll start with an overall recap – all numbers provided by Brooks Baseball.

Bauer stuck to what he knew in his debut; his four seam fastball.  The easiest to control pitch in his arsenal was also the most used pitch.  Bauer threw the four-seamer 43 times out of 74 total pitches.  He mixed in a change up and a curve ball, but threw his two-seamer just four times.  He tossed the change up 11 times and the curveball 16 times.

Bauer gave up his first Major League run in the third inning.  In that inning, he threw just 36.17% of his pitches for strikes.  Not a recipe for success by any stretch.  In the ill-fated inning, Bauer threw 30 of his 74 pitches.  In the fourth inning, when Bauer gave up his second run, he was still struggling.  Just not as much.  He threw 61.54%of his pitches for strikes, but still allowed a run.  He was pulled after the fourth due to cramping, but in all the outing was not bad.  He is expected to go longer in his next outing.

As Bauer gets more comfortable pitching in the Majors, he will mix his pitches up more often.  His fastball is his best pitch, so he will continue to use it frequently.  The four-seamer topped out at 95 mph yesterday.  However, he didn’t get any whiffs on the four-seam fastball.  He did get 12.5% whiffs on his curve.  But the fastball is the pitch with which he has the most control.  He threw strikes 60.4% of the time with the fastball.

Bauer is next schedule to pitch July 3rd against the Padres in Phoenix.  It will be his home debut, and the crowd is sure to be intrigued by the phenom.

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