The parallels between Tim Lincecum and Trevor Bauer aren't immediately obvious — for instance, though they're only a couple of inches apart, Bauer has nearly 50 pounds on the smaller Lincecum — but that doesn't mean the comparisons don't exist.
Quite the contrary: their backgrounds as absolutely dominant college pitchers and their "high-torque deliveries," as noted back in 2012 by MiLB.com, are quite similar. Both winners of the Golden Spikes Award, Lincecum and Bauer ascended up draft boards to become top-ten picks after logging phenomenal stats and mind-blowing strikeout totals, specifically in their final college campaigns. Bauer even modeled his delivery, in part, after that of Lincecum, which he expanded upon as a prospect in the aforementioned MiLB.com interview.
"I think mechanically I modeled myself off of him when I was changing my mechanics around," Bauer said. "I've studied the principles he uses and how he goes about certain things, and I applied same principles to my delivery. Mechanically, I'd say we're similar, and our ideology is similar too."
Bauer also called himself Lincecum's biggest fan and studied him all the time as he was rising through the MiLB and MLB ranks.
So when their paths eventually crossed — and, like Max Scherzer recently said, MLB always seems to make this happen — it was the case of an up-and-coming pitcher meeting the experienced and renowned starter who he idolized throughout his career. But it wasn't exactly the enlightening, advice-filled moment that Bauer may have envisioned, and he recalled the moment on Jam Street Media's "GOATS: On the Bump" podcast with Blue Jays pitcher Ross Stripling.
"The first time I met Tim Lincecum, he's laying on a training table. I've imagined this in my head, this meeting of Tim Lincecum, for years and years. It's like, you look up to the guy, right?" Bauer said. "He's laying on a training table getting work done. I walk in and Sam, the guy working on him, goes, 'oh hey, Trevor, this is Tim. Tim, this is Trevor,' makes the introduction. And Tim, the first thing out of his mouth, he's like, 'hey, who's got the biggest piece in the big leagues?'
"And like, I did not in a million years think that this was gonna be the way my first interaction with Tim Lincecum went, but here we are."
Interpret that question from Lincecum however you'd like. But, more importantly, it's just another example of the goofy Lincecum, who entertained fans just as much with his brilliant, albeit short-lived, pitching performance as he did with his off-field shenanigans and personality.
Speaking of pitchers with a knack for both dazzling displays of baseball domination and drawing attention to themselves off the diamond... well, that's just another trait that Lincecum and Bauer share, though in different ways. Whether it's toying with batters, making polarizing statements on social media or just doing his thing as one of the game's most difficult pitchers to face, Bauer isn't going to stop entertaining us for some time.
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