Cuban Sensation: Aroldis Chapman

Aroldis Chapman is a 21 year old pitcher from Cuba who successfully defected from Cuba while in the Netherlands this past July while pitching for the Cuban National team.  Word from scouts is that his fastball has been clocked as high as 102 MPH during the 2009 World Baseball Classic.  Not sure how accurate that figure is, but he can bring the heat to say the least.  So now he stands to get a pretty decent contract despite the fact he has no big league experience.  Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News thinks that the Yankees will have the inside track to land Chapman.  The one advantage is the Yankees can eat up their mistakes and are one of a few teams who can afford to give Champman a 4 year 20 million dollar contract, which is what it appears he is shooting for.

The Yankees are no strangers to pitchers defecting from Cuba.  They landed Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez back in 1998 and he made his debut with the club in June of that year.  El Duque became one of baseballs best big game pitchers, winning his first 8 postseason starts.  He may have also saved the 1998 season for the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians.  El Duque delivered 7 shutout innings to help the Yankees tie the series and eventually go on to win the World Series and go down as one of the best teams in baseball history, boasting 125 wins including the postseason.

Christmas Eve of 2002 brought another hot Cuban commodity to the Yankees.  Jose Contreras defected and the Yankees and Red Sox fought it out over his services.  Theo Epstein wanted him so badly that he purchased every room at the hotel where Contreras was staying at in Nicaragua, to try and keep the Yankee brass as far away from him as possible.  The move failed and the Yankees still ended up landing Contreras.  Epstein was said to be so irate that he hurled a chair through his window in his hotel room. Though Contreras didn't succeed in New York, he did help the Chicago White Sox win the World Series in 2005, their 1st since 1917. 

Expect the Yankees and Red Sox to be the two teams most involved in the Chapman sweepstakes.  Keep the chairs away from Theo if the Yankees beat him to the punch again. 

By Vinnie Ferrarini