Like several others, I've been careful to try to temper my excitement over our right-handed Aroldis Chapman. I'm beginning to get excited enough about him to begin to think some of those big things the organization saw in his future may not only be attainable, they may actually be coming sooner than even us wackos expected or hoped.
Yes, his offspeed stuff needs work, but he's much more like Chapman and Mo Rivera than anyone the Braves have had that I can personally recall. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly too early to put him in their category, but I've seen enough to think that he has that type of upside - like those guys, his ONE pitch is so good that I think he can be successful throwing nothing but fastballs until he can throw something else for strikes. The reason I would compare him to those guys instead of Kimbrel and Vizcaino is that their fastballs (impressive as they've always been) aren't quite THAT good. When Chapman was breaking in, he was a lot like Mauricio - he hadn't yet mastered a second pitch - when he got behind in counts he was able to reach back for that little bit extra that Viz and Kimbrel don't have and just say "here it is, betcha you can't catch it" and no one could. I see a lot of that in Cabrera, and think that if Roger can be convinced that they just need to call nothing other than fastballs when he's in tighter games that he could close right now. I've always been in the camp that believes MLB hitters can eventually time any fastball if they see it enough, but they haven't timed Chapman's yet, and they've now seen it for several years. Timing 96-98 is one thing - timing 102 is another story altogether IMO. You have to gear up and start SO EARLY to even make contact with it, backing off a hair and throwing a Kimbrel fastball will make hitters look silly - and it doesn't necessarily even need to ever start in the zone.
There was a sequence in one of his first couple of appearances that I keep going over in my mind that simply wasn't fair. He went 102 center-cut and the hitter just kinda rolled his eyes. Then 103 center-cut and the hitter was way late. Next, 103 center-cut and the hitter barely nicked it with the end of the bat. The last pitch was a hanging slider at 86 in the middle of the plate that Peterson caught about 2 steps in front of 2B.
Like I said, I'm really trying hard not to get the cart before the horse with him, but he makes it tougher and tougher every time I see him.
Yes, his offspeed stuff needs work, but he's much more like Chapman and Mo Rivera than anyone the Braves have had that I can personally recall. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly too early to put him in their category, but I've seen enough to think that he has that type of upside - like those guys, his ONE pitch is so good that I think he can be successful throwing nothing but fastballs until he can throw something else for strikes. The reason I would compare him to those guys instead of Kimbrel and Vizcaino is that their fastballs (impressive as they've always been) aren't quite THAT good. When Chapman was breaking in, he was a lot like Mauricio - he hadn't yet mastered a second pitch - when he got behind in counts he was able to reach back for that little bit extra that Viz and Kimbrel don't have and just say "here it is, betcha you can't catch it" and no one could. I see a lot of that in Cabrera, and think that if Roger can be convinced that they just need to call nothing other than fastballs when he's in tighter games that he could close right now. I've always been in the camp that believes MLB hitters can eventually time any fastball if they see it enough, but they haven't timed Chapman's yet, and they've now seen it for several years. Timing 96-98 is one thing - timing 102 is another story altogether IMO. You have to gear up and start SO EARLY to even make contact with it, backing off a hair and throwing a Kimbrel fastball will make hitters look silly - and it doesn't necessarily even need to ever start in the zone.
There was a sequence in one of his first couple of appearances that I keep going over in my mind that simply wasn't fair. He went 102 center-cut and the hitter just kinda rolled his eyes. Then 103 center-cut and the hitter was way late. Next, 103 center-cut and the hitter barely nicked it with the end of the bat. The last pitch was a hanging slider at 86 in the middle of the plate that Peterson caught about 2 steps in front of 2B.
Like I said, I'm really trying hard not to get the cart before the horse with him, but he makes it tougher and tougher every time I see him.
