photo credit: SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent)
“I had no chance,” Castillo said of the final pitch. “He threw hard and was sneaky, too.”
When your own teammate describes you in this manner after an intrasquad game then you know you’re doing something right. These guys have been around Aroldis Chapman for a couple weeks now and they didn’t fully realize the extent of his power until then stood in the box and tried to hit off him.
The Reds‘ MAJOR acquisition from Cuba brought every nasty bit of pitching that could be imagined yesterday to a game that meant absolutely nothing, but showed his teammates everything.
“He was overthrowing a little bit, maybe,” catcher Ramon Hernandez said. “Remember, he hasn’t pitched in eight months. He’s trying to get a rhythm. He fixes that up, he’ll be set. He really pitched well. He threw a lot of the fastball and found the strike zone with it.”
So, this dude hasn’t pitched in 8 months and already people on the Reds think they wouldn’t have a shot against this guy? Plus, he was overthrowing and STILL making it hard for people? Usually when you hear words like “overthrow” or “strain” you see balls flying out of the park because the ball is just floating out there for the hitters to hit. Apparently, Chapman has a magical touch that just makes hitters miss. I don’t think that it could be explained, but I don’t think the Reds care for an explanation either.
The bested the richest teams in baseball to get a kid who can pitch for them–seemingly–forever. They have no worries now. They’ve picked up probably 10 wins just by having this dude on the roster. Add to that the experience they got from playing decently last year and you have a strong combo in Cincinnati.
I’m not saying they’ll win the Central…but they might come darn close.
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I hope Chapman does pan out as I do like to see balance in the league. But so far we only have a small sample size and him adding 10 wins to the team would be a real lot. Especially considering Linecum’s project WAR is 7.9 and Halladay’s is 6.4. AC was also quite hittable during the WBC with a 5.68 ERA. He has great stuff and lots of potential but I don’t think he’ll be on the same level as a Linecum or Halladay, at least not this year.
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