Oct. 16 Trevor Bauer workout day interview

October 16th, 2016

Q. Is that the culprit right there?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah, I brought my friend to answer any questions about what happened that I can't answer.

Q. How bad did you feel after that happened, given the circumstances and what you guys are trying to do right now?

TREVOR BAUER: Obviously you feel bad. I want to go out and be able to make my start and help the team any way that I can. I was really looking forward to pitching on Saturday. And people come in town and obviously Game 2, it's an important game. So all these games are important. So definitely felt bad. Just one of those things, freak accident you can't really control. And try to maintain a positive attitude the whole time. Literally I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pitch at some point in the series. I got pretty lucky.

Q. What's your status now, Trevor?

TREVOR BAUER: Normal, I guess, scheduled to start tomorrow. Looking forward to that.

Q. How have you adjusted with the stitches in your hand?

TREVOR BAUER: It's really a non-issue. I've been able to throw normally and stuff. Like I said, I'm excited for tomorrow.

Q. Just curiosity, precisely how it happened. Just for those of us who don't have the experience, were you just working on it?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah. So I plugged it in, like I've done thousands and thousands of times, and for whatever reason it was sitting like this, I was plugging the battery in and my finger happened to be right here, and for whatever reason these three propellers didn't spin like they were supposed to and this one spun up at max throttle. It never happened to me before. I have no idea why it happened. And my finger just happened to be in the way of the prop and it cut me.

Q. For people who don't know you, can you just talk about your interest in drones and sort of why that's something you like to work with?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah. So I mean, I think it's a fairly well-known thing about me and I'm a big nerd. And I like "Star Wars" a lot. So in 2013 I saw a video of these drones with the LED lights on the back of them racing through the forest and it reminded me of the scene on Endor where they're driving the speeder bikes, and I said, That looks awesome, I've got to learn how to do that.

So I started teaching myself about it, reading up about it. I was a mechanical engineering major in college, technology and physics and stuff like that has been a passion of mine my entire life. And this is just a great outlet for me to kind of get away from baseball a little bit and enjoy technology.

I custom designed this entire frame, I designed it on a CAD program, 3-D printed some of the parts with my 3-D printer, put it together by myself, assembled it myself, the whole process. Like I said, it's kind of my escape, and I've been doing it for three or four years, two years, three years, actually. And this is the first time anything like this has happened.

Q. Given that Josh had to pitch on such short notice, what did you think about the job he did against that lineup?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah, that was super impressive. I think the casual fan would overlook it. It's something that shouldn't be overlooked. Routine is huge for starters. Throwing your bullpen so you can stay sharp, but also just the physical preparation of knowing how your body is going to respond and be able to go out there and feel like you're a hundred percent ready to compete. Which is obviously even more important for playoffs, when every game is so important. He obviously wasn't able to do that.

So the job he did of going out there and throwing the way he did was extremely impressive. And he deserves a ton of credit for that.

Q. Did you drive yourself to the emergency room or who did you call or what took place after you got injured?

TREVOR BAUER: Called a cab and rode over there to the emergency room. I was staying at a hotel right now, so they were able to get a cab there pretty quick.

Q. Question on your teammate and fellow pitcher, , what he's been able to do in the postseason, specifically against the Blue Jays so far. What have you seen and how impressed are you?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah, I mean -- is this the first time that someone struck out five in consecutive playoff games, right, five or more. So he's doing stuff that no one has done before. Obviously extremely impressive and gives the team a ton of confidence to know that you're going to hand the ball off to him and you have a really, really good chance of keeping the lead and winning.

His stuff's electric. Mid 90s from the left side with a devastating slider. Reminds you a lot of Randy Johnson's repertoire, tall lefty with nasty stuff. Strikes a bunch of guys out, which really helps. Anytime someone gets on base, he has the ability to get you out of jams, limits runners from scoring. Super durable. He can throw a lot of innings, back-to-back days, mechanically super sound.

So there's not enough good things -- let's say, there's too many good things to say about the guy to say in a press conference.

Q. For those of us just learning about you, what is your favorite "Star Wars" movie and what are your thoughts on the trailer of the "Rogue One"?

TREVOR BAUER: What was the last part.

Q. The trailer of "Rogue One"?

TREVOR BAUER: I'm pretty pumped for it, as I am for any "Star Wars" movie that comes out. I read the books, the offshoots and following characters and whatnot. I think it's pretty awesome they're going to expand and start developing the whole "Star Wars" universe. I'm excited for that.

My favorite one? I don't know, "Phantom Menace" probably, just because I think Darth Maul is one of the coolest villains, double-sided lightsaber, and his theme song. I like that one for whatever reason. But I don't have a least favorite one. They're all 1A, 1B, stuff like that.

Q. The cut on your finger, can you sort of explain where it is and how many stitches you got and what impact it could have on you pitching in terms of gripping and breaking open and that sort of thing?

TREVOR BAUER: Yeah, definitely not as interesting of a question (laughter).

So I have it covered up right now, but it's on the -- I guess I'll use this pinky. It's on the top kind of part of the pinky going from I guess the first knuckle here towards the nail down to the second knuckle. Kind of on the outside of it, on the top. And thankfully there's nothing really of importance there, it's just skin.

So I got a number of stitches, I don't know exactly how many. I wasn't interested in really counting or watching or anything like that. But I've thrown with it a couple different days. It doesn't affect anything as far as my grips. I don't even use my pinky on any of the pitches I throw, it just kind of hangs out over there. I don't anticipate it being an issue at all.

Did I get everything?

Q. [Inaudible.]

TREVOR BAUER: I threw yesterday, and there's very, very minimal bleeding. I can imagine with two more days that will completely stop. I don't anticipate that being an issue at all.

Q. I remember some time ago there was the mandate about not flying them over the ballparks. And then there was the one you stuck in the tree in Kansas City. Has there been a lot of adversity in your drone relationship and how do you overcome that basically and maintain this relationship?

TREVOR BAUER: There's a ton of adversity. It's basically like a good marriage, right? We fight all the time, beat each other up -- no, that's not a good marriage, don't do that (laughter). That could get taken out of context. I definitely don't endorse that.

I mean, I fly them hard. I try to push my limits and learn new tricks, and fly closer to obstacles. So I crash a lot. That's one of the things I'm most proud about. This one crashes really well and it doesn't break. Definitely a lot of adversity. I'm always fixing them, repairing them. I have like eight or ten of them in my fleet, and at any given time usually about one or two of them are actually working. So lots of repairs. My dad jokes with me that I need to hire a drone repair technician, follow me full-time so I have a healthy fleet.

I work on them all the time. I'm very aware of how everything goes together and the wiring and everything like that. And it's just something I really enjoy.