Farmers Only: Aroldis Chapman has his longest start as a pro, but Louisville needs a new closer

by nycredsfan on Jun 2, 2010 7:54 AM EDT in Farmers only

Louisville lost 4-3. Aroldis Chapman had one of his best starts as a pro, going 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 5. The best part is he did that with only 88 pitches, and reports are that he had his offspeed stuff working well. Methinks he's getting closer and closer to a call-up. Zack Cozart was 1-4 with a double, and Wilkin Castillo was 1-3 with his 5th homer. Unfortunately Chapman didn't get the W for his efforts, as Jon Adkins gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose it. It was his 5th blown save of the year, and his ERA now stands at 7.58. Jared Burton threw another scoreless inning. Maybe he should close games for a little while. Up Next: Matt Maloney starts at 11:35 a.m.
Carolina lost 5-4. Jeremy Horst pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief, and Mike "George" Costanzo went 2-4 with a triple. Kris Negron also hit his 4th homer of the year. Up Next: Scott Carroll goes at 1:05 p.m.
Lynchburg won 4-0 behind 5 1/3 strong innings from James Avery. Recent callup Donnie Joseph pitched a scoreless inning, striking out 2. Neftali Soto was 3-4 with a double (and caught the game), and Alex Buchholz was 2-4 with a homer. Up Next: Jordan Hotchkiss starts at 7:05.
Dayton won 9-2. Chase Ware threw 4 shutout innings of relief, and struck out 4. DiDi Gregorius was 4-5 with a double, Henry Rodriguez was 2-4 with a double, and Chris Richburg hit his 5th homer. Up Next: JC Sulbaran goes at 7:00.

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Reallllly wanted to go see the game

But had some uninterested family in town… what was Chapman clocking on the stadium gun?

by Nasty N8 on Jun 2, 2010 9:06 AM EDT reply actions

he topped out at 100 a couple times

But apparently his fastball wasn’t working as well, so he threw a lot of offspeed pitches.

I just love the pitch efficiency.

This is a good article about last night’s game, and his progress in general.

see what I did there with uzr? it’s like a LOL cats saber-pun combo.--Verka Serduchka

by nycredsfan on Jun 2, 2010 9:38 AM EDT up reply actions

Wowza

That Chapman start is highly encouraging!

"People don't kill people. Burning oreo packages kill people."

by crolfer on Jun 2, 2010 9:08 AM EDT reply actions

He's really just had 2 rough starts.

Besides that, he’s been nails as they say. He’ll definitely be ready this year.

And apparently Volquez is awesome again – I’ve forgotten just how good he was. I’d also like to see them retain Bronson. That’d be some goddamn depth at SP.

Then they could use all those quality AAA arms as bullpen arms and have an awesome, cheap pitching staff. Gotta replace CoCo and eventually Rhodes, though. Man am I gonna miss Arthur.

by jsl413 on Jun 2, 2010 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions

It's a good point. Although you can't really take out 2 bad starts, (just like you can't take out his 2 best starts, they all happened)

if you do, his line on the year is:

44.1 IP, 28 H, 24 BB, 47 K, 1.22 ERA. (really interesting that in his worst outing he K-ed 8 and only walked 1)

What that means is he’s still inconsistent, but when he’s on, he’s dominant, at least in AAA. I still think his control issues and lack of command of his secondary stuff will doom him in the bigs, but once he’s improved on those, even moderately, he’ll be ready.

see what I did there with uzr? it’s like a LOL cats saber-pun combo.--Verka Serduchka

by nycredsfan on Jun 2, 2010 12:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Doom him when he's like.. not on.

But when he’s on, he’ll be just as tough to hit in the MLB as he is in AAA. Seems like he’s on 60-70% of the time. How do you not take those odds? I mean, give him a little more time with Rick Sweet and Co. down in Louisville to see if he can learn how to pitch a little bit, and then we’ll have to see him in the bigs.

The one thing that concerns me, and has been masked by the Reds’ success this year, is that our pitching seems wildly inconsistent top-to-bottom. I hope that’s not a product of our coach.

by jsl413 on Jun 2, 2010 1:45 PM EDT up reply actions

He's been good, but the fact that he went 7 innings with just 88 pitches is the part that excites me the most.

"People don't kill people. Burning oreo packages kill people."

by crolfer on Jun 2, 2010 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions

I went to the game.

He didn’t throw as much heat as I would have liked all 3 of his walks were nearly if not exactly 4 pitches. He was wild at times and nearly decapitated a batter with a 99mph fastball. His off speed stuff was working well so he used it more often. The Clippers hit him pretty hard at times but nothing to be concerned about. Not as many strikeouts as I was bragging to my friends before the game either. Overall a good outing for him over 7 innings. It was the walk-off pinch hit Adkins gave up that cost the Bats the game.

It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself. -Gertrude Stein

by Travis Rehl on Jun 2, 2010 1:34 PM EDT reply actions