BlindSquirrel wrote:Wasn't Max Scherzer the same hype?
Bauer is way more in the prospect mold of a Tim Lincecum, Scherzer was hyped, but we're talking about a special pitcher here, not a guy with a straight fastball and no movement (Scherzer threw 72.5% & 71.0% fastballs his first 2 years in the majors, that's not gonna cut it with low 90's top end stuff). Scherzer's gradually thrown more Sliders and especially increased his Changeup % over his first 4 years in the majors, but his K-rate has also declined every season, while his BB-rate hasn't followed suit until last year (his K/BB has gone from 3.1 to 2.7 to 2.6 back to 3.1 last year).
I'm a firm believer than the biggest jump in the Minors is from A/A+ to AA; nearly any decent Major League regular probably succeeded well at A/A+, but not as many absolutely dominate AA to the same degree. While neither guy has a very large sample size -- Bauer's K/9 went from 17.0 in A+ to 14.0 in AA (not including last night), a drop but not a significant one when factoring in the jump in competition. Scherzer's K/9 went from 15.9 in A+ (comparable to Bauer) down to 9.3 in AA, which is both a significant decrease and no where near Bauer's numbers. Both had mediocre walk rates at the AA level, with Bauer recorded 4.3 per 9 last year, Scherzer was at 4.9 in his 14 AA games (3.3 K/BB for Bauer to 1.90 K/BB for Scherzer).
Is Bauer a surefire lock to succeed? Of course not, not many are when you walk 4+ guys per 9, but with Josh Collmenter & Joe Saunders putting batting practice fastballs across the plate, it's going to be a lot sooner than later when we see Bauer in Arizona. For Gekko's and my sakes, I hope he turns out a little more like Tim Lincecum than another Giant prospect with big K and BB numbers, Jonathan Sanchez.
) and pineda on the DL, i'm a hurt'n unit for SP. could use some bauer power
