Trevor Bauer is one unorthodox pitcher. He had a fantastic junior season at UCLA, going 13-2 with a 1.25 ERA and a Pac-10 record 203 strikeouts, winning the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur baseball player. He was drafted No. 3 overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who may call Bauer up in September in the heat of the pennant race.
↵Bauer has a unique delivery, and a structured training regimen that involves long toss, throwing nearly every day, and vigorous exercises in 12-second increments. This week's issue of Sports Illustrated profiles Bauer, who was very adamant that he wouldn't conform his style to suit the wishes of concerned major league teams:
↵↵↵"This is what I do, it’s what I believe in, and if you let me stick with it, I’ll pitch in the major leagues for 20 years. Some [teams] were open. Some weren’t. But they needed to know what they were getting into."
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Arizona knew what they were getting into, and embraced the trial of something different. Senior VP of scouting and development Jerry DiPoto said, "This is a chance for us to really explore what pitchers are capable of doing." Baseball is a rather risk averse sport, so it's nice to see thinking outside the box once in a while.
↵For more news and information on UCLA baseball, be sure to read Bruins Nation.