Cleveland Indians Roundup: Trevor Bauer Has Changed His Approach; Friday’s Score Has Been Adjusted

Cleveland Indians’ Trevor Bauer has made some impressive changes

Trevor Bauer has been on an impressive streak for the Cleveland Indians recently.  Over his past 11 starts, he has a 2.96 earned run average and a 3.22 fielding independent pitching – which uses walks, strikeouts, and home runs to estimate a player’s ERA.  He even leads all major league pitchers in wins above replacement over the past 30 days. 

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What could be causing this change?  For one, August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs notes that Bauer has looked like an entirely different pitcher during this time.  Bauer has been notorious for walking too many batters, and he has managed to reduce his walk rate this year by throwing more strikes.  Furthermore, he has increased his ground ball rate by almost ten percentage points.  Ground balls, are a good way for pitchers to induce weak contact, and generally, it is a good thing when pitchers can have a lot of groundouts.

Another interesting change is that Bauer is now worker faster than ever.  In fact, he seems to have a better connection with his new personal catcher, Chris Gimenez.  Bauer is now throwing more sinkers than ever, and he is using a better mix of his pitches.  He has also added more spin to his curveball, which now has the third most vertical movement in the major leagues.

Still on the Trevor Bauer topic, Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com touches on his improvements in his latest column of Hey, Hoynsie.  Hoynes gives Bauer some credit for working with himself in the bullpen and developing a more conventional approach to pitching.  He also thinks that Chris Gimenez has played a role in the changes.

Speaking of Gimenez, a reader asked Hoynes what will happen when Roberto Perez comes off the disabled list.  Perez had previously been one of the best replacement catchers in the majors, but he still has three options left.  If the Gimenez-Bauer combination is working so well, it might be worth putting one of those to use.

Finally, the score of Friday night’s victory over the Detroit Tigers has been changed from 7-4 to 7-5.  The Cleveland Indians will still go down as the winners of the game, but the margin has been slightly trimmed.  The reason for the change is that umpires decided that Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler did indeed cross home plate before the Indians could double off Cameron Maybin.

The play was a fishy one.  Rajai Davis bobbled the ball and appeared to drop it; but in reality, he caught it after the bobbling.  Kinsler and Maybin still took flight, as they thought that the ball had been dropped, and Kinsler reached home before the throw could get Maybin out.  Apparently, because the Indians did not challenge the play, Kinsler’s run counted – even though he left second base before Davis caught the ball.

More from around the American League Central:

Cleveland Indians Roundup: Abraham Almonte Starts Rehab Assignment; Detroit Tigers Series Preview – Wahoo’s on First

Trevor Bauer Looks Like a Completely Different Picher – FanGraphs

Has Trevor Bauer Turned the Corner for the Cleveland Indians? Hey, Hoynsie – Cleveland.com

A Day Later, Tigers Get Extra Run in Loss to Tribe – Indians.com