This is one I’ve never heard before. Ken Rosenthal spoke with Reds’ AAA pitching coach Ted “Tower of” Power, who says that Arolids Champan may need to figure out how to throw an offspeed pitch that isn’t a changeup because his hands are too big to effectively grip one. For now he’s using his slider as his offspeed pitch.
Thoughts:
1) When I saw Chapman pitch here in Columbus a few months ago he was definitely throwing an effective changeup. It wasn’t a slider, at any rate, as he threw some of those too, slotting in ahead of his changeups in velocity but below his fastball (it helps that I was sitting right behind home plate and couldn’t detect slider movement on many of his offspeed pitches as well). Maybe Power’s point is about consistency with the change. Chapman was on the night I saw him. He got shelled in his next outing. Maybe the change wasn’t working;
2) For now Chapman can get away with only featuring two pitches because he’s in the pen. If the Reds return him to starting next season, he’s going to have to figure something out; and
3) Knuckleball, dude. You know in your heart it’s right. How awesome would it be to go from 103 m.p.h. to a flutterball? Probably physically impossible for a guy like Chapman, but if he could do it, I’d probably quit my job and become his butler.
