Tag: Aroldis Chapman

Andrew McCutchen had the best reaction to Aroldis Chapman angrily spiking his glove on an eventual fly out

Chapman thought that was GONE.

Pirates reliever Aroldis Chapman has spent 15 years in the big leagues. He’s pitched in some of the biggest games, and he’s also given up some massive home runs. He usually knows when he has allowed a game to get away from him.

Luckily for him, Tuesday was not one of those nights.

Chapman came in to pitch the eighth inning against the Dodgers with the Pirates up a run. He gave up a hit to Shohei Ohtani and walked Will Smith. So, with one out in the inning, he was convinced that he gave up a go-ahead home run to Teoscar Hernández. And he let everyone know just how certain he was.

Chapman spiked his glove in disgust only for Jack Suwinski to make the catch at the start of the warning track. Chapman was fired up to be wrong about that one, and he got out of the inning without allowing a run. When he returned to the dugout, Andrew McCutchen had to playfully mock that glove spike.

Well played. Chapman had to expect that one.

The Pirates held on to win, 1-0.

The Mets won on a walk-off hit by pitch after Aroldis Chapman accidentally pegged DJ Stewart with bases loaded

The Mets won on a walk-off run…after a batter got hit by a pitcher.

The New York Mets just won a baseball game in the most absolutely absurd way possible during their Wednesday night tilt at Citi Field.

Tied with the Texas Rangers in the bottom of the tenth with the bases loaded, Mets batter DJ Stewart went up to the plate to try and get the runner on third into home plate.

Well, Rangers pitcher Aroldis Chapman wound up doing the exact thing you cannot do in a situation like this and hit Stewart with his pitch.

Instead of it just automatically sending Stewart to first base and sending in the next Mets batter, the runner on third got driven into home and the Mets would win the game 6-5 on a walk-off hit by pitch.

The Mets have had a terrible year, but the joy with the Mets dugout all celebrating this just unheard of way to win a baseball game just underscores the ludicrous nature of what happened.

If you can get a win like this, by all means, get the win. While New York fans haven’t had much to celebrate lately, this game will be one for the scrapbook.

Aroldis Chapman’s gravity-defying 102 mph sinker had Luis Rengifo laughing after a strikeout

Can you blame him?

Fans often don’t realize the kind of courage that it takes to step into the batter’s box and face a big-league pitcher. Like, if I’m staring down a pitch from Aroldis Chapman, the only emotion I’m experiencing is complete and utter terror.

Angels infielder Luis Rengifo, on the other hand, can laugh about facing Chapman. He’s just built different.

During Tuesday’s game between the Angels and Rangers, Chapman pitched a perfect eighth inning and got the appearance started with a seven-pitch strikeout of Rengifo. The pitch that ultimately retired Rengifo on strikes was straight-up unfair — a 102.2 mph sinker that tailed towards the left-handed batter’s box from a lefty pitcher.

There wasn’t much Rengifo could’ve done with that pitch, and he didn’t hide his thoughts on that whole experience against Chapman. Shortly after striking out, Rengifo was laughing as he returned to the dugout.

A 102 mph pitch shouldn’t move like that, so I can’t blame Rengifo for being dismayed. Fans related with Rengifo’s disbelief even if the laughter was shocking to see.

10 pitchers (including Josh Hader) whose tempos were most affected by the new pitch clock in 2023

Giovanny Gallegos is averaging nearly nine seconds less per pitch!

After years of speculation, the MLB officially began to implement a pitch clock for this season.

Pitchers are only allowed 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty and 20 seconds when runners are on base and the games are much faster.

Last season, we predicted ten pitchers who would likely become most impacted by the rule change. This season, using the pitch tempo data provided by Statcast, we were able to track which players have seen the biggest dips in their tempo on the mound. Here is how it works:

“Pitch tempo measures the median time between pitches (in other words pitch release to pitch release). Only pitches that follow a take (called strike or called ball) and are thrown to the same batter are considered for this metric.”

Note that this timer adds about six seconds more than the actual pitch timer used by umpires.

Using this data, meanwhile, we were able to determine which pitchers are operating at a faster tempo between each pitch while on the mound.

While we cannot assess that correlation equals causation, we also compared the expected weighted on-base average for each pitcher to track their year-over-year progress or regression.

This is why we chose that particular metric for evaluation (via MLB.com):

“xwOBA is more indicative of a player’s skill than regular wOBA, as xwOBA removes defense from the equation. Hitters, and likewise pitchers, are able to influence exit velocity and launch angle but have no control over what happens to a batted ball once it is put into play.”

Here are the ten players whose pitch tempo has been most impacted by the pitch clock rule change. The number next to each name indicates how much shorter the tempo is between each pitch for the player compared to last year.

RELATED: What are the MLB pitch clock rules? Breaking down the details, violations and more

Aroldis Chapman threw a scorching, unfair 103.4 MPH fastball vs. Dodgers

WOW.

As we said a couple of months ago when Aroldis Chapman was throwing heat again: The reliever is back.

The flame-thrower was casually tossing 104 MPH pitches for the Kansas City Royals before he was dealt to the contending Texas Rangers in June. And on Sunday, he threw an absurd 103.4 MPH two-seam fastball that darted out of the zone and got Yonny Hernandez swinging in a key moment.

That pitch is so unfair. How do you deal with that? I’m not a Major Leaguer! I have no idea!

In seven games with Texas, he hasn’t allowed an earned run and has 12 strikeouts.

Aroldis Chapman is back to casually throwing 104 MPH

He’s back.

Aroldis Chapman hasn’t had the best of seasons since 2021, when he had 30 saves for the New York Yankees.

He struggled last season with a 4.46 ERA, and many assumed age finally caught up with the reliever with over 300 saves.

But at age 35, after signing as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals, he’s revived his career at least thus far in the 2023 season. He’s got a decent 3.45 ERA with one save and 25 Ks in 15.2 innings.

Oh, and his velocity, which we know has been his calling card throughout his career? It’s up. Way back up. Dude is back to throwing 104 MPH fastballs.

Wild.

Aroldis Chapman ran over an umpire, who miraculously made the right call

OOF!

GAHHH LOOK OUT!

That’s what I wanted to yell at first-base umpire Vic Carapazza as Aroldis Chapman steamed toward him on a tight play at first in Tuesday’s Kansas City Royals loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately, Chapman was watching the play at first and not ahead of him. As Chapman realized the first baseman would make the play — ultimately, an out by tagging first with the ball, but it was a close one — he headed toward Carapazza and knocked the ump down.

At first, Carapazza signaled safe — I thought for a moment he was sarcastically saying he himself was safe — but then changed the call to the correct one. I give him major kudos for doing that after the 6-foot-4, 218-pound reliever trucked him:

Hope he’s OK!

 

 

10 pitchers with the slowest tempos who could be most affected by the MLB’s new pitch clock in 2023

These guys are going to have to speed it up!

After years of speculation, the MLB will officially begin to implement a pitch clock beginning next season.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, pitchers will only be allowed 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty (the MLB average is currently at 18.2 seconds) and 20 seconds when runners are on base (the current average is 23.8 seconds).

This rule is expected to make the games faster, which is a good thing.

Using the pitch tempo data provided by Statcast, I found the pitchers most likely to be impacted by the new rule. It is particularly interesting to note that relievers dominated this list.

If we looked at the players who have thrown at least 750 pitches this season, however, the names that would top the list would look very different. They would include Shohei Ohtani (Angels), Luis Garcia (Astros), Paul Blackburn (A’s), Corbin Burnes (Brewers), and Josiah Gray (Nationals).

Otherwise, however, these are the players who use the most time between pitches in the MLB:

Watch: AJ Pollock hits game-winning home run for White Sox

Maybe this an omen to an amazing rest of the season.

No matter how long you’ve been in baseball, homering against the New York Yankees in the Bronx always is a thrill. That’s especially true if the Yankees have the best record in the bigs. We find that to be the case this year, and Notre Dame alumnus [autotag]AJ Pollock[/autotag] didn’t let that intimidate him Sunday. With his Chicago White Sox and the Bombers tied at 1 in the top of the ninth inning of the first game of a doubleheader, he decided to unleash his power in a timely manner against Aroldis Chapman:

The Sox added an insurance run in the inning and won, 3-1. For Pollock, it was the perfect recap to a solid week. After a slow start that included a trip to the injured list, he has been swinging the bat well as evidenced by his slash line of .375/.407/.667 over the past seven days. Here’s hoping he continues to look good at the plate.

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Aroldis Chapman did something he’s never done while giving up a ninth-inning grand slam

Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees have huge problems.

Aroldis Chapman and the New York Yankees are in a bad spot — a really bad spot. Chapman’s ERA had gone from 0.00 to 3.77 over his last 13 appearances, and the Yankees have gone 1-5 in their last six games.

And we’re only grazing the surface as to why Jared Walsh’s ninth-inning grand slam was a brutal blow to the Yankees and Chapman on Wednesday in New York during L.A.’s 11-8 win. Walsh’s at-bat came at the top of the ninth with the Angels trailing four runs. Chapman walked three consecutive batters to load the bases. And then the worst happened. On his first pitch to Walsh, he put it in the stands. Here’s a look at the grand slam.

So let’s dive into three quick stats that make this moment even more devastating for Chapman — and the Yankees.

  • Chapman had never allowed a grand slam in the majors. This was the first he’s ever allowed.
  • Chapman had never allowed a homer on his slider to a left-handed hitter.
  • The Yankees now have just a 33% chance of making the playoffs, per FiveThirtyEight.com. That number has fallen 6% in the last week.

It was a moment of firsts for Chapman in the worst way. And it was a significant blow to the Yankees’ playoff hopes.

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