SEASON SUMMARY

When examining Rick Bauer, forget the 0-5 record--that means nothing.  Bauer's peripherals in his six starts with the Orioles weren't all that bad, particularly given that he was pitching in the big leagues for the first time.  But Bauer's been around.  He turns 25 in January and he'd never shown much at the minor league level until last year, when he turned the corner.

Or did he?  Well, that's hard to say; I keep going back and forth.  Bauer started the season in Bowie where he made nine starts before being promoted to Rochester.  In his nine AA starts, Bauer threw 61 innings, allowed 53 hits and walked only 10.  So far, so good.  He also posted a 3.54 ERA.  Not too bad.  But he was tagged for eight home runs and fanned just 34.  Not so good.

In Rochester Bauer made 18 starts and appeared in relief once.  He tossed 113.1 innings, surrendered 119 hits including 10 home runs and walked 28 while striking out 89, while posting a 3.89 ERA.  In some respects, Bauer appeared better at AAA than at AA, but he didn't exactly overwhelm anyone at either place.  The hits went up at Rochester, but so did the strikeouts.

Bauer throws strikes--that much is obvious.  He's not going to kill himself by issuing free passes.  In a combined 207.1 pro innings last year, he walked just 47 batters, which is excellent.  But he allowed a total of 207 hits--25 of them home runs--and struck out just 139 batters.  The numbers aren't terrible but, except for the walks, they're not especially impressive either. Remember, more than 80% of last year's innings were thrown at the minor league level.  Good big league pitchers are supposed to excel in the minors.

On the other hand, Bauer clearly improved last year, and he did so at the high minors and, to a modest degree, in the majors.  He's a right-hander with a better than average fastball and, as stated above, very good control.  But does he have the other pitches necessary to really make a difference at the big league level?  That remains to be seen.  He'd shown no sign of this in his pro career until this past season.  If Bauer can take a comparable step forward this season, he can help.  His future, even then, is likely to be as a back end rotation starter or middle/long reliever, but that doesn't mean that he can't have a nice career.  But he definitely has to build on last year's not unequivocal progress.

TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY NEXT YEAR, HE MUST:

1) move forward as much in 2002 as he did in 2001

2) clearly demonstrate an arsenal of pitches beyond the fastball that he's lived (and died) with for most of his pro career

NOTES

Was solid, home runs notwithstanding, at home last year:  in four Camden Yards starts, he threw 27.1 innings, allowed 21 hits (five home runs however) and five walks while striking out 14, posting a 2.63 ERA in the process...the results were a lot less attractive in his two road starts:  5.2 innings, 14 hits (two home runs), four walks and just two Ks; ouch...mostly got the job done with the bases empty (opponents managed .231/.277/.397 in 78 ABs), but not with runners on base:  .315/.367/.574 in 54 ABs.