Trevor Bauer may be the most intriguing member of the Cleveland Indians. From only pitching out of the stretch to his pregame long toss routine, he’s made himself memorable–for better and worse.

One of the biggest faults that most fans noticed was how Bauer would have atrocious first innings of games and then settle down and pitch well for the remainder of his start. It’s just something that isn’t seen a lot around the MLB. He also had an issue listening and being open to changing his approach on the mound which led to concern from the organization. This was the same problem the Arizona Diamondbacks had with him the year before and ultimately led to his trade from there.

Even though it seems that he is trouble to most people, he works hard at what he does and wants to be the best pitcher in the league.

He has admitted that he is guilty of over-thinking while on the mound and obsesses over tinkering his mechanics. While most pitcher’s are taking time off to rejuvenate their body after a long season, Bauer is still throwing and figuring things out at his second home–known as Texas Baseball Ranch.

Bauer went 5-8 with a 4.18 ERA and 143 strikeouts last season. The numbers don’t seem promising but since his first start in 2012 his ERA has declined by one each year.

In order for Bauer to be successful, he must play with more consistency through the first innings of games and be able to get past the fifth and sixth inning. He will likely be the third or fourth man in the rotation as he is out options. It was said that he is getting his fastball up to 100 mph in Spring Training and was locating his pitches a lot better than he did last season.

Bauer features a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, cutter, changeup, splitter, sinker and a rarely thrown screwball. He mainly started with his cutter last season and would give most hitters the hook with his sharp curveball that bit as it went downward.

While having a wide array of pitches shows the talent he possess, it would be best if he focused and worked on four to five pitches instead of eight. Bauer is potentially the future of this team along with Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco but he must be willing to listen to change from other experienced coaches and not take everything into his own hands.

Prediction: 8-6, 3.25 ERA, 180 SO. Bauer starts to get it together and could potentially be in for a big year.