the 1,000,000th Chapman thread

[Beatlessp]

I hope this one is a little different though.....

Here's my take on Chappy in the rotation....all three years he's been up, he's had to take time to rest his arm, usually a couple of weeks. Now, I understand the worry about his innings limit converting this year, but here's my thing: It's pretty obvious to me that his arm/shoulder can't handle pitching every day like most relievers. Why is it that more people don't see that? Everybody's talking about how 'dominant' he was last season...last i checked he was 38 of 43 save opportunities...roughly the same conversion rate as CoCo had in his time here. Yes the strikeouts are amazing, and he had a REALLY good stretch where he was a shut down guy. Then came the arm fatigue. I really feel his fatigue problems over the last three seasons have come more from pitching too many days in a row, a concern I really don't wanna have with a 'star' closer. I think moving to the rotation is going to give him more rest and he will be healthier in the long run for it. Thoughts?

[Rock of Truth]

It may be good for Chappy. He will have to Pitch rather than just throw. What I mean by that is throw in a slider, maybe a change up every now and then. Having a chance to pitch in some meaningless innings might be good for the guy to get in some work.

[mattfeet]

You also have to remember that the Reds aren't turning Chapman into a starter for the very first time in his life. He's been a starter, and succeeded, before...The Reds are just getting him back to that position.

-Matt

[Beatlessp]

Yeah, I forgot to include that part, that he pitched as a starter for Cuba before defecting. I just think his arm/mechanics aren't put together for everyday wear and tear. Plus, I think a lot of people forget he was supposed to start last season before Madsen, Massett and Bray all went down with injuries, in fact Jocketty has said several times he was the best starter they had in ST last year.

[coachpipe]

I just hope he can add another pitch and consistently throw it for a strike. I haven't looked it up. But does anyone know how many sliders he threw last season? If he can work more of them into his game and add a change up things look good

[Beatlessp]

I don't think it'll be an issue...when he was most effective he was mixing in the slider more last season, and we he struggled, he stuck with pretty much all fastballs... I dont have a source, but from what I remember reading before, I think he has a pretty serviceable (i.e. not maddox-like, but usable) change up too, he just never used it in relief

[Rock of Truth]

I haven't looked it up. But does anyone know how many sliders he threw last season?

You can probably count the number on two hands.

[REDREAD]

Some interesting info about Chapman and his slider:

From wikipedia:
Both pitches have extraordinarily high whiff rates of 33% for the fastball and 58% for the slider.

From http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/12/6/3734054/aroldis-chapman-cincinnati-reds-manager-dusty-baker-quotes


In Chapman's case, it helps that he already has four developed pitches -- a fastball, slider, splitter, and changeup -- but you can still consider two of them untested given that he's never had to use the split or changeup as a reliever. In other words, the pitches might not be as far along as the Reds hope. As a reliever, Chapman threw his fastball 88 percent of the time (98-m.p.h. average velocity), and has shown shaky command with his slider. As for the other two pitches, BrooksBaseball.net says that he's thrown a change-up only three times in the majors. Even though Baker described Chapman's splitter as "nasty," Chapman has thrown it exactly once in the majors. Since the splitter and change-up aren't as sharp, it makes since that he'd be encouraged to limit their usage, but just because Chapman has more pitches than originally anticipated, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good arsenal, and there's still concern about his ability to throw off-speed pitches to left-handed batters, a huge weakness when facing platoons.