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Trevor Bauer Selected Third Overall By Diamondbacks In 2011 MLB Draft

The Diamondbacks have selected Trevor Bauer with the third overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft. The Diamondbacks were widely connected to Danny Hultzen with that pick, but the Mariners might have taken the rug out from under the D'Backs by selecting Hultzen with the second overall pick.

Trevor Bauer is the 'other' UCLA pitcher in the the 2011 MLB Draft - he has been widely regarded as a top-ten pick for some time, but he's usually behind his teammate Gerrit Cole on draft boards, despite outperforming him this season.

Of course, college statistics aren't the end-all for draft picks, and there are often players with impressive stats who nonetheless don't make very good draft prospects. The problems with Bauer are that he doesn't throw as hard as Cole, he has racked up wildly high pitch counts (which could make him an injury risk), and he has a violent delivery. Bauer is a very intelligent player with strong ideas about workouts and his mechanics, and he thinks his use of his body in his delivery actually reduces the risk of injury to his arm. But that idea is controversial, and for every Tim Lincecum type of pitcher who does well with a similar delivery, there are others who don't make it.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.