{"id":3092,"date":"2011-02-28T18:59:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T00:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2011-02-28T19:01:30","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T01:01:30","slug":"the-golden-sombreros-top-50-prospects-12-aroldis-chapman-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/3092","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Sombrero’s Top 50 Prospects: #12 – Aroldis Chapman (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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#12 Aroldis Chapman<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n

LHP<\/p>\n

DOB: 2-28-88<\/p>\n

ETA: 2011<\/p>\n

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105 mph.\u00a0 6-foot-4.\u00a0 Left-handed.\u00a0 There are no real surprises left with this Cuban defector.\u00a0 He throws insanely hard; harder than any pitcher in the history of baseball.\u00a0 If he retired today, Chapman would have already left his mark on the game.\u00a0 Like Chris Sale<\/a><\/strong> and the Chicago White Sox, everyone is really hoping that the Reds don\u2019t seriously intend to waste his talent as a reliever for the entirety of his career.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows that Chapman\u2019s fastball is a triple-plus pitch, but the slider, which comes in at a staggering 90 mph on good days, is at least a 70 grade as well.\u00a0 He also has a changeup, but it grades as a sub-50 pitch today. \u00a0If the Reds\u2019 management decides they are no longer interested in winning and confine Chapman to the pen, it may never grow into an average offering because he simply doesn\u2019t need it to succeed in short outings.<\/p>\n

However, Chapman\u2019s success as a starter may hinge on whether or not he can develop this pitch into one that he can use to get Big League outs.\u00a0 While we at the Sombrero are very heavy into the statistical aspect of evaluating players, Chapman\u2019s 2010 stats just don\u2019t mean anything.\u00a0 He beat up on entirely over-matched Minor League hitters in a role that he hopefully stops filling very soon.\u00a0 His stuff is mesmerizing, and there is no one in the game who boasts arm-speed to rival this monster.<\/p>\n

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#12 Aroldis Chapman \u2013 Cincinnati Reds LHP DOB: 2-28-88 ETA: 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,1300,6,11,13,10,14,1616,775],"tags":[1892,54,700,639,1769,1891,1730,3463],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3097,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}