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Taro's picture

Tremendous article on Bauer. His obsession over analyzing pitching, his competitive nature, his perfectionism, and not fitting in during highschool:
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_18164611
"I think I'm more of a scientific mind," Bauer said. "My dad is an engineer, and that's how I grew up, so I look at baseball as a science. And I'm a perfectionist, too. So I look at it as, `How am I going to perfect at this?'
"When I'm out there and I give up a hit, it's like, that's not acceptable. I look at it from the scientific view, whether it's delivery mechanics, the way to sequence pitches, how the ball spins based on the seams. I'm always trying to master those nuances. That's what excites me. That's what gets me going as a person.
"I'm not superstitious at all,": Bauer continues. "The `Baseball Gods,' the eye-black, the whole wearing the same sliding shorts while you're on a roll, getting rid of your hat, whatever all that stuff is, that's never clicked with me. I just don't understand how wearing the same hat when you're in the dugout is going to affect what's on the field. I'm not a believer in it. I'm more of a scientist out there, looking to try to master the game, be as close to perfect as I can."
"It's amazing now," he said. "I can watch baseball games at the big-league level and I can say, 'OK, it's a 2-2 count; if he throws a fastball away, he's going to get a hit; if he throws a fastball in, he's going to pop up; if he throws a breaking ball in, he's going to strike out; if he throws breaking ball away, he's going to roll over it.' The majority of the time, it happens."
 Competitiveness and perfectionism:
"There are some things I wanted to do this year, and I think I've done a few of them, but the one thing I haven't done - call me crazy - is strike guys out as well as I should've,"
"They put the ball in play 19times today - that means the defense had to make nine-teeeeen outs," Bauer said, in disgust.
"When I get in situations like that, I get the ball back and before I step on the mound, I just turn everything off, and I get locked in," Bauer said. "I hate giving up runs. I haaaate it. If a guy hits a home run off me, fine, whatever. Not fine, but I can deal with it. When a guy gets on base, and someone gets a hit to score him, I can't stand that. When guys are on base, I get locked in on the me-you, me-against-the-hitter mentality. I hate losing. In those situations, I'm going to beat you. When I do it's a release. I was so locked in, I have to come back to reality. It just kind of ... comes out."
Another aricle:
http://www.foxsportsarizona.com/05/28/11/UCLA-ace-Bauer-wants-to-be-a-Di...
His coach:
"Those were the two best curveballs I've been around. Zito has the best left-handed curve I've seen and Trevor has the best right-handed curve I've seen," Savage said.
"He's got multiple swing-and-miss pitches. I can tell you this: He's as good as I've seen with two strikes. Deception. He sequences pitches. You're talking about throwing the same pitch out of the same tunnel and making every pitch look the same. He's really into that. He's a firm believer of connecting this pitch to the next pitch to the next pitch. I think that's why he gets so many swings and misses. You saw a pretty complete guy tonight."
Molding himself on Tim Lincecum:
"Right about the time I was learning about momentum to the plate and using arm action was the time he (Lincecum) came up with the Giants. So I looked at a guy who was 5-10 on a good day and when when he came up throwing 97-98 (mph) out of that frame and I said he has to be doing something right. So I watched as much video as I could on him and tried to pattern myself after him.
"I personally think he has the best mechanics in the big leagues. He's the most efficient. I don't buy into the over-torquing. The more you torque and use your body and the stronger muscles on your body, the less stress you put on your arm. I actually think that's preferable to the guys who are using mostly arm."

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