You think Bard has heat?

Southpaw Aroldis Chapman defected from Cuba in 2009 while participating in a tournament in Europe. It was not the 1st time he had attempted to defect. In 2008, a botched smugglers’ plan thwarted that plan to defect. Later that year, he would not make the trip to the Olympics, and depending upon whose story you believe, he was either removed from the team for performance issues, or because it was punishment for attempting to defect. In 2009, he did not divulge his plan to anyone and successfully departed from his hotel, his team, and his country, leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend.

ESPN reported in December of 2009 that the Red Sox had extended an offer of $15.5m to Chapman. Chapman and the Red Sox shared a mutual interest, but the Cincinnati Reds trumped the Red Sox offer with a $30m deal of their own in January of this year.

Chapman made his 1st appearance with the Reds on August 31 in order to be eligible to play in the post-season. Since then, he has made an appearance in 12 games, 10.1 innings, and has allowed only 8 H’s, 5 BB’s and 3 ER’s, while registering 14 K’s.

Chapman had already been well known in pro baseball as being able to throw 100+ mph heat, as he had pitched in the 2007 World Cup at the age of 19. Last Friday, Chapman became the 1st MLB pitcher to record a pitch of 105 mph. Yes, you read that right- one hundred and five miles per hour. Chapman threw 25 pitches that night and they were all over 100 mph. Tony Gwynn told reporters that he never even saw the ball until it was past him.

Daniel Bard has high 90’s heat, and occasionally hits 3 digits, but Chapman routinely hits 100 on the radar gun. Bard isn’t even in the top 12 list of MLB’s fastest recorded pitches:

I’m happy to see Bard in a Red Sox uniform, make no mistake about that, but $30 million is an awful lot of money for a (reportedly) 22 yo kid who still has some maturing left to do. I’m just glad he’s in the National League. I’m sure the Red Sox are happy to see him in the National League, and not on the Yankee’s payroll.

ESPN’s Buster Olney on Chapman in this video from July of 2009: