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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 column

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Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2010 > August > 31 > Entry

Arroyo’s take on throwing ‘105’

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 04:43 PM

Shortly after the Cincinnati Reds left the clubhouse for batting practice, the shrill fire alarm siren went off all over the stadium and somebody wondered why?

It was clear to me - Aroldis Chapman must be warming up his fastball in the bullpen.

Bronson Arroryo was asked when was the last time he threw a pitch 105 miles an hour and he smiled and said, “When I was 9 years old, pitching Little League in Key West and parents had to push their crying kids into the batter’s box because they didn’t want to face me. I threw so much harder than the other kids. It was ridiculous and my pitches looked 105.”

Arroyo laughed and said he had a friend who saw him pitch in Little League, “But I moved from Key West when I was 10 and didn’t see him again until I was pitching in the minors. He said, ‘What are you throwing now, about 100?’ He remembered me from Little League and thought it would transfer. He laughed when he saw how hard I wasn’t throwing.”

Arroyo shook his head when asked about Chapman’s triple-digit fastball and said, “Only about 10 guys ever walked the earth who threw 102 miles an hour. Isn’t Nolan Ryan in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing 102? Well, there you go. Chapman will replace him.”

Arroyo, though, put it all in perfect perspective when he says speed doesn’t always burn major-league baseball hitters.

“Manny Ramirez is not intimidated by a 100 miles an hour fastball,” he said. “It is all about location. Zeroes on the scoreboard is what is impressive. Radar on the board means nothing. Zeroes mean everything. Fifteen zeroes on the board between now and the end of the season is more impressive than 105.”

Arroyo admits that throwing 100+ is advantageous, if the thrower throws strikes.

“It is a huge advantage,” he said. “When you throw a heater that hard you can get away with more mistakes, get away with more pitches in the zone. A hitter doesn’t have as much time to react.”

AND HE BELIEVES the Reds are doing the right way by pitching Chapman out of the bullpen, probably for one hitter or one inning.

“Throwing that hard with an adrenaline spike out of the bullpen is huge,” he said. “You can’t maintain that over seven innings.”

Asked if he believes Chapman threw two pitches at 105 last week for Class AAA Louisville, Arroyo shrugged and said, “Depends on the gun. We’ll see how hard he throws here. But what’s the difference when he throws that hard - 102, 103, 105? I did hear that a scout clocked him with his speed gun at 105 and thought something was wrong with his gun. So he changed the batteries and the next pitch was 105.”

Arroyo said the Reds aren’t all that excited about seeing Chapman’s fire and smoke, “Because we saw it this spring. And when you’re watching you don’t notice the difference between 95 and 100. Hey, I batted against Stephen Strasburg and he was throwing 98 to 100 and I felt like I had a chance to hit him.”

When asked what he thought was the limit of human being throwing a fastball might be, Arroyo smiled and said, “I guess it’s 105.”

AND WHEN WAS the last time a home crowd rooted hard for their starting pitcher to get knocked out of the box early. That was the strange situation facing Aaron Harang Tuesday. A large walk-up sale of tickets spiked attendance a bit, most them showing up in hopes of seeing Chapman walk out of the bullpen.

“You can get by with ‘over the speed limit’ if you have good location,” said Manager Dusty Baker. “Because you have to commit so early. Over the speed limit guys don’t have to be as sharp. As a hitter facing ‘over the speed’ limit pitchers, you want to swing, but you don’t have time. You want to swing, but you don’t. You say, ‘I wanted to, but I just couldn’t.”

Baker said Chapman probably will be eased into his baptism, if possible.

“We’re going to try to break him in a lesser situation, a low-pressure situation if we can help it,” he said. “You don’t know how it will end up. We’ll try to put him in a situation, in the beginning, to get his feet wet. It helps us tonight because we don’t have Arthur Rhodes available. But…if I’ve used Bill Bray already and Prince Fielder is up there, it might be, ‘Hey, good luck. Go get ‘em, Aroldis.’”

Baker, though, doesn’t expect pressure to cause Chapman to collapse like a cheap beach chair.

“I think he can handle it because if you can handle pitching for food - which is what he was doing in Cuba, pitching for food - then you can handle pitching here,” said Baker.

Chapman, 22, is 6-foot-4 and all legs - his legs seemingly sprouting out from under his arm pits. That gives him a tremendously long stride so that he seems to be pitching from 52 feet instead of 60 feet, 6 inches.

MLB’s Bob Watson was carrying around some photos on his cell phone earlier this year after Chapman pitched in a Triple-A game. The grass in front of the mound was chopped and chewed, looking as if somebody took a pick-axe to the grass.

“That’s from Chapman’s stride,” said Watson. “He lands so far in front of mound he digs up the grass. We’re going to have to watch this, maybe make the dirt area in front of mound bigger.”

TO MAKE ROOM for Chapman (called up from Class AAA Louisville) and Harang (lifted off the DL), the Reds placed outfielder Laynce Nix (sprained ankle) on the disabled list and optioned Edinson Volquez to Class A Dayton, hoping he’ll make two starts before the Dragons end their season.

Volquez will pitch Wednesday night and if all goes well he’ll pitch again for the Dragons next Monday, Dayton’s final game.

“Volquez was in the bullpen because he wasn’t pitching effectively lately as a starter,” said Baker. “This guy is in our plans as a starter, not a reliever. (Pitching coach) Bryan Price made some mechanical changes and we’d rather have him experiment with those changes there rather than here. If we sent him to Louisville, he couldn’t come back until their playoffs are over, but he can come back when Dayton’s season ends.

“We’re looking at him to get his stuff together because he is a quality starter when he has act together,” Baker added. “In case a couple guys are not doing well, or somebody looks fatigued or tired, we can insert him back in there. It gives another strong arm because there is nothing wrong with his arm. It is extremely strong. It is just a matter of mechanics and location at this time. It gives us viable options into September and hopefully into the playoffs. We can pick our roster from a nice pool of guys.”

TO REPEAT, some dirty, rotten scoundrel hacked into my e-mail account and changed my password. So now I have a new account - halmccoy1@hotmail.com. Please send those great Ask Hal questions for Sunday to that address - halmccoy1@hotmail.com.

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