Buster Olneys reports “The most intense bidding of the winter will not be over Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. It will not be John Lackey who is going to have the most bidders frothing after him. No, it will be Aroldis Chapman, the 21-year-old pitcher who reportedly defected from Cubawhile traveling with the national team in the Netherlands. To put his talent in perspective: Some evaluators view Chapman as a left-handed Stephen Strasburg. “He’s pretty special,” said one official. He has a fastball clocked at 101 or 102 MPH, and a plus curveball and plus slider, to use the scouts’ vernacular.”
I would hope Mr A enters the fray for the Cuban, but sadly it will come down to the Yankees or Red Sox.
freddy in beautiful boca raton
A couple of things about Cuban pitchers. Number one. Cuban pitchers usually know how to pitch. They usually have good mechancis. They can field their position…. they can hit and bunt and to use a basketball term, they have good court sense. If you’re going to spend up to $6 million for a first round draft pick you can take a shot by offering that amount for a Cuban pitcher if he checks out physically and all your scouts agree that this pitcher is, in their opinion, the “real thing”.