As just about any D-backs fan on Twitter knows by now, Trevor Bauer had a good Triple-A debut. How good? Well, for a guy who some (in full disclosure - ::raises hand::) had concerns about in the home-run-happy PCL against more advanced hitters, Bauer as impressive a debut as could have been hoped for. While facing 29 batters, Bauer allowed just five baserunners on the night, limiting his free passes and, from blue bulldog's report, had a destructive curveball that either froze hitters or made them take futile swings. The Bauer Era is approaching, folks.
Snakelet Bauer of the Day:
Trevor Bauer (Triple-A): 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 11:1 K:BB, 9:3 GO:FO, HR
Triple-A: Reno 2, Oklahoma City 1. (21-21) Well, since I spent most of the intro going over how spectacular Bauer's results were, I'll just use this section to offer you a fun stat on Bauer's night courtesy of Barry Enright's Twitter page:
Amazing stat for y'all tonight. @BauerOutage dominated w/ only 44 of 113 pitches being Fast Balls. Revolutionizing the game? @Aceball Win!!
— Barry Enright (@BarryEnright54) May 19, 2012
Most of the time, you would expect to see someone like Livan Hernandez be responsible for a pitching outing of less than 40% fastballs. However, Bauer was sitting 93-95 mph on the night, yet still hardly ever chose to use the pitch. This is more trivia than in-depth analysis, but I find this utterly fascinating.
Meanwhile, the Aces were faced with the tough task of facing Oklahoma City starter Aneury Rodriguez, the Astros' first overall pick from the Rule 5 draft prior to the 2011 season. After spending last year in the big leagues, mostly working out of the bullpen with little success, Rodriguez is under unconditional control and back in the minors to continue his development as a starter. Rodriguez stifled the Aces bats for most of the night, but an RBI double from Josh Bell and a solo home run from Mike Jacobs proved to be enough offense for Reno to topple Oklahoma City with Bauer's absurd outing. Adam Eaton and Cole Gillespie each also reached base twice, both on a single and a walk.
Double-A: Mobile 5, Jackson 13. (24-18) It was a rough day on the mound for BayBears right-hander Derek Eitel. Eitel worked 4.1 innings for Mobile and seemed to be generating plenty of ground balls, but too many of them found holes in the infield, resulting in nine hits. Eitel also issued a pair of walks, and despite striking out four, he allowed eight runs before departing, all of which were earned. Things didn't get much better with reliever Bryan Henry on the hill, as the right-hander allowed one of Eitel's inherited runners and five more runs to cross the plate, four of which were earned, in his 1.2 innings on the mound. That proved to be too much of a hill to climb for the BayBear bats, despite doubles from Brent Clevlen, David Nick, Wladimir Sutil, and Marc Krauss. Clevlen, Sutil, and Nick had multi-hit games for the BayBears offense.
Hi-A: San Jose 13, Visalia 8. (21-21) Things were going well for the Rawhide through seven innings, as the club jumped on top of the Giants 8-5 due to plenty of offense and some solid work from Victor Capellan and Jeremy Erben out of the bullpen. Garrett Weber had three hits, including a home run, while Ryan LaPensee and Chris Owings tripled and Bobby Borchering and Michael Freeman doubled. Owings also drew a walk in this one, which means it's time to break out the meme once again.
Unfortunately, things didn't go so well from that point on, as Blake Cooper was unable to get the fourth out of the eighth inning. Cooper allowed one earned run before back-to-back errors prevented the second and third outs from being made, keeping the inning live and causing five of the six batters faced by Cooper to score after Bo Schultz added gasoline to the fire with three more runs allowed before the end of the inning. With an eight-run inning by the Giants in the top of the eighth, the Rawhide turned a solid three-run lead into a five-run deficit that they were unable to make up.
Low-A: Lake County 4, South Bend 2. (22-20) Starting pitcher J.R. Bradley had a wild outing, walking five of the 22 batters he faced and, consequently, not getting through the fifth inning. When I've seen Bradley at his best, he's pounded the lower half of the strike zone with his two-seamer and induced quick contact, so the high walk totals are out-of-line with his typical plan for success. Nonetheless, since making his first start of the year as it was snowing in South Bend - I kid you not - Bradley has worked 32.2 innings for the Silver Hawks, allowing 28 hits and 16 runs (13 earned) while striking out 15 and walking 14. That line is good for a 3.58 ERA, which is impressive for a 19-year-old in full-season ball. Bradley finished his night with two strikeouts and four runs (three earned) allowed over 4.2 innings of work.
Later on in the game, right-handed pitcher Blake Perry made his full-season debut out of the bullpen, working three dominant innings for South Bend. Perry, a 20-year-old pitcher picked in the 6th round of the 2010 draft out of high school in Kentucky, struck out four while working three perfect innings. Perry's performance included swinging strikeouts of Cleveland Indians prospects Luigi Rodriguez and, more impressively, Francisco Lindor. Unfortunately, the South bend bats were unable to capitalize on Perry's great work out of the bullpen, with doubles from Ryan Court and Ender Inciarte and two-hit games from Chris Ellison and Josh Parr accounting for all six of South Bend's hits.