Aroldis Chapman definitely impressed me in his US professional debut this afternoon. Here's his line from my scorecard: 4.2IP, R, ER, 5H, 1BB, 9K. He struck out the last two batters of the first inning and the last of those strikes read 101mph on the Fifth Third Field radar. This piece from ESPN says that he reached 100mph five times... I was watching the stadium readout pretty closely and I don't remember it reaching that mark more than twice. C. Trent Rosecrans agrees with ESPN saying 3 pitches at 101mph, 2 at 100mph, and 5 at 99mph... so I guess I wasn't watching that close. Here is some video.
He did get a bit wild at times, getting behind hitters with 2-0 and 3-0 counts, but he always seem to battle back and only walked one batter. Several Mud Hens batters couldn't touch him, especially Jeff Larish, a player with about 75 games of experience in the major leagues.
Aroldis is a long, lanky, imposing figure on the mound. Being a left-hander and wearing #51 he reminds of Randy Johnson. His long arms and delivery lessens the distance to the plate so that 101mph fastball probably seems more like 108 or 110mph.
I haven't seen that many cameras at the ballpark since Diasuke Matsuzaka made a rehab start with the Pawtucket Red Sox here in Toledo. Also, there were A LOT of Reds fans there. Many of which, like myself, local to the area. But I would venture to say quite a few drove up from southern Ohio to take their first glimpse at Chapman -- they didn't go home disappointed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment