Second Take: Scouting Aroldis Chapman
MATCH-UP – Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta Braves) at Louisville Bats (Cincinnati Reds)
KEY PROSPECTS WE’RE WATCHING – Aroldis Chapman (LHP, Reds)
GAME BOX SCORE – Click Here
SCREENSHOT
A quick note on video structure…videos are edited to include only key and legitimate prospects. Time between pitches and between innings are edited out. Some commercials are left in out of respect for the companies that purchase ad buys.
I use time markers for when a particular hitter comes up to bat or a certain pitcher enters the game so you don’t have to shuffle through the video looking for key players. Games are edited so you can scout and evaluate a prospect in the most convenient and quickest way possible.
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This is my second look at Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect Aroldis Chapman. The last time we looked at Chapman, we saw a pitcher with an elite level fastball, but inconsistent mechanics and a slider that was worse than past scouting reports have suggested. So I wanted to get another look at Chapman. This outing occurred in late May and he has since been placed in the Louisville bullpen as the Reds may have an eye on using Chapman out of the big league bullpen late in the season.
Nevertheless, in this start Chapman showed off a much more consistent and tightly spun slider. However, there were a couple of red flags that also popped up that I have some concern about. But first let’s talk about the fastball.
Chapman came out of the gate firing fastballs that simply exploded out of his hand…I took the liberty to leave in the instances where the play-by-play announcer tells the viewer what the radar gun is registering. For those who can’t view the video with sound for whatever reason, here are the readings on the radar gun:
