#BauerOutage

A few years ago Diamondbacks prospect Trevor Bauer was all the rage in the sport.  The hard throwing pitcher had a great college career at UCLA, was a top draft pick (third overall), and rated as a top ten prospect by Baseball America.  His first couple of stops in minors yielded some high ERAs and plenty of hits, but Bauer fans loved the Ks.  In 2011, pitching half a season, Bauer's K/9 ended north of 15.  In 2012 in was just shy 11.  Then the Diamondbacks traded him to the Indians.

Not to say that the Indians are solely responsible for his slide, but his strikeouts are down, his walks are up, and Bauer looks average at times in the International League.  Last season in a full year at Columbus Bauer had a losing record with an ERA over 4 and had a K/9 rate under 8.  Pretty big shift over three years.  Card collectors have taken note of the BauerOutage.

After being drafted, his cards were pretty hot.  Collectors love big arm, high strikeout guys.  Especially college pitchers who can move through the minors fast and get the the Majors fast.  I could throw out dozens of examples here, but several different websites compared Bauer to Steven Strasburg.  His card today have become pretty cheap.  So, I picked up a Bauer autograph finally.

Bauer has always had a really cool autograph and I love the look of this card.  It's purple, but I kind of like it.  Not sure I can place a finger on what's so cool with this card.  Anyway, the card cost me slightly more than $5 and is a good gamble considering that Bauer is still just 23 and actually looked good in his first Triple A outing this year.  In his first game Bauer pitched six innings, struck out nine, and only allowed two hits.  Good start to the season.  Hopefully he will earn a trip up to Cleveland at some point during the year.