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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2010 > March > 12
Friday, March 12, 2010
Why is somebody from Cuba named Chapman?
PHOENIX, Ariz. -Every time Aroldis Chapman sneezes, a writer is close enough to say, “Bless you,” even though Chapman doesn’t understand a word of it.
Through interpreter Tony Fossas, the Dayton Dragons pitching coach, Chapman was asked if he is already tired of the attention and he said, clearing in English (which in this case also was Spanish), “No, no, no.”
Catcher Ramon Hernandez heard it and said, “He doesn’t understand English so he has no idea what is going on around him.”
Manager Dusty Baker made a solid point about the 22-year-old lefthanded Cuban defector: “If he didn’t sign for all that money ($30.25 million), nobody would know about him or be paying attention to him.”
Well, maybe. Maybe not.
When you throw 100 miles an hour fastballs, 90 miles an hour sliders and 80 miles an hour change-ups, it is hard not to gather notice.
Chapman pitched two more scoreless innings (two infield hits, two strikeouts, 35 pitches, 20 strikes) as the Cincinnati Reds beat a Los Angeles Dodgers split squad, 3-2.
What was impressive is that in his second inning, Chapman faced three Dodgers regulars. Andre Ethier fouled out on the second pitch. Matt Kept swung and missed a 3-and-2 change-up. Casey Blake took a 3-and-2 change-up for strike three, a change-up thrown so hard that most thought it was a 90 miles an hour slider.
Impressive.
OK, QUICK question. How can a Cuban be named Chapman?
“My ancestors are from Jamaica and moved to Cuba,” said Chapman. OK, mon, so who in Jamaica is named Chapman. I digress.
Chapman fiddled and fuddled with his breaking pitches, sliders, most of the day and showed frustration and irritation at times Friday.
“Personally, I felt good, but I missed a couple of pitches that I was trying to put over the plate but they went the other way,” he said. “The last couple of games I have not used the break ball at all, so I wanted to throw more on the last couple of hitters so I could work on them.”
AND SPEAKING of attentive media, mostly out-of-town guys seem intent on trying to get manager Dusty Baker to commit to sticking Chapman in the rotation and he won’t bite.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The main thing is we have to keep him in the rotation and see how he does. See how he is because we don’t really know what we have yet.
“Possibly everybody is getting ahead of themselves with this kid,” Baker added. With what Chapman has done so far, mainly spin the dials on radar guns, Baker was asked if he understands the super-hype and the massive attention.
“Yeah, I understand it,” Baker said. “But I don’t have to adhere to it. First, we want him to fit in with the guys. We got him to pitch and let’s let him pitch right now.”
JONNY GOMES hit a two-run homer, his second this spring (Shouldn’t he be the starting left fielder, left handed pitcher or right handed pitcher?) and Chris Heisey cracked a solo shot for the three Reds runs and a 3-0 lead trudging into the ninth. But Carlos Fisher gave up two in the ninth and Justin Smith came on with the tying run on first and got the last out.
Bronson Arroyo got the win with three scoreless innings as the starter.
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TweetArroyo sings but he doesn’t strum
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Bronson Arroyo sang six songs at Woodjock Thursday night in Scottsdale, but he did NOT play the guitar.
And he wants to emphasize that to Cincinnati Reds CEO Bob Castellini, “I did NOT play the guitar. And I didn’t even want to play the guitar.”
Arroyo and the Reds traced a bout with carpal tunnel syndrome in his pitching wrist last spring to plunking guitar strings.
“If somebody had got me on film playing the guitar, Mr. Castellini would have called me to his Sanctuary (Castellini’s Phoenix resort) and thrown me off the top of a cliff behind his house, I might not have been able to come back.”
Woodjock was a charity event put on by pitcher Jake Peavy with major-leaguers performing. “I sang four of my songs and two that Barry Zito and Brian Meadows were supposed to sing, but didn’t. Zito plays the drums now.”
Arroyo laughed and said, “Zito, Peavy and I all pitch today, so we’ll see if we can get anybody out.”
DODGER GENERAL MANAGER Ned Colletti is in Phoenix while half the Dodgers are in Taiwan for a three-game exhibition series. Asked why he isn’t in Taiwan, Colletti said, “I’m good a multi-tasking, but I’m not good at multi-continents. Besides, we played Kansas City the other day and do you want me to miss that?”
NICK JONAS of the Jonas Brothers, dressed in Dodgers uniform No. 92, took batting practice today (welcome to Hollywood South). Not a bad stroke. But he took heavy ribbing when he broke his bat. Asked if Jonas is a prospect, Colletti said, “Depends on what field you’re talking about?”
FORMER REDS infielder Mariano Duncan is a coach with the Dodgers and looks as if he could still hlit .300. “Not me, he said. “My time is over.”
When Duncan played for the Reds, they often did calisthenics in the clubhouse and had to clear writers out of their way. It was always Duncan who yelled, “Hey, writers. I love you guys, but get the hell out.”
FORMER REDS Barry Larkin and Sean Casey are in camp for a few days as guest instructors. Joe Morgan was in camp for a day earlier this spring.
“Larkin knows when to go after people and when to lay back,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Nice to see him and Sean Casey in camp. That’s all part of the rebuilding process around here.
“How many guys get to be around players who they tried to play like when they were kids, like Brandon Phillips?” asked Baker. “Larkin was Brandon’s childhood idol. “We have Larkin, Casey, Cesar Geronimo, George Foster, Morgan, Mario Soto, Jim Maloney, Tom Browning and Jack Billingham hanging around at different times. If they can say or do one thing, it might help a get a kid’s career jump-started or help them figure it out.”
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