Over at Baseball America, they put together a very solid piece on Chapman’s debut. There are literally hundreds of articles out there, each saying the same damn thing: “Chapman’s a stud!”
And the 22-year-old Cuban was impressive, shutting down the Mud Hens on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. Four of the five hits off the lefthander, who signed a six-year, $30.25 million contract with the Reds in January, never left the infield as Chapman struck out nine while walking only one.
Chapman threw 85 pitches, 55 for strikes, but those weren’t the numbers that were most impressive. What caught the attention of the 5,642 fans at the game were the five times the southpaw reached 100 miles per hour or more on the stadium speed gun, as well as 32 pitches that topped 95.
Sweet said Chapman has been working with Reds coaches on his breaking pitches.
“He’s got a pretty good breaking pitch,” Sweet said of Chapman’s slider. “They’ve made a few changes that have made it (break) bigger.
“But the changeup is the pitch he has been working on, so it was nice to see him throw some changeups that caused hitters some problems.”