Aroldis Chapman

Full name is Albertin Aroldis De La Cruz Chapman...was signed by Chris Buckley, Tony Arias and Miguel Machado...Defected from Cuba in July 2009 before the start of the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands...established residence in the Principality of Andorra, marking him a free agent eligible to be signed by any Major League team...at 181 square miles with an estimated population of 84,000, Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe...it is located in the eastern Pyrenees Mountains, bordered by Spain and France.
2015
Went 4-4 with 33 saves (in 36 chances) and a 1.63 ERA (66.1IP, 12ER) in 65 relief appearances with the Reds...received the Johnny Vander Meer Award as Cincinnati's "Most Outstanding Pitcher" as voted on by the local chapter of the BBWAA...was named to his fourth straight NL All-Star team, as voted on by his peers...retired 50-of-65 first batters faced (76.9%) and allowed six of his 11 inherited runners to score (54.5%)...Led all Major League relievers with a 15.74 K/9.0IP ratio (66.1IP, 116K) and ranked second in strikeouts behind only now-teammate Dellin Betances (131)...led all National League relievers in ERA and strikeouts...Recorded at least 2K in 43 of his 65 appearances and struck out the side 12 times...According to MLB's Statcast, threw the 62 fastest pitches in the Majors, with a high of 103.92 mph on 6/29 (a pitch fouled off by Minnesota's Brian Dozier)...posted the highest average fastball velocity in the Majors (99.96 mph), ahead of Kansas City's Kelvin Herrera (98.46)...Recorded his 115th career save on 4/10 vs. St. Louis, surpassing Danys Baez (114) for the most career saves by a Cuba-born pitcher in Baseball history...his hat from the game was sent to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown...Suffered the loss on 5/10 at Chicago-AL and 5/11 vs. Atlanta, recording a loss on consecutive days for the first time in his career...his run allowed on 5/10 was his first since 8/17/14 at Colorado...in 28 appearances between runs allowed (8/21/14-5/6/15), tossed 28.1 scoreless innings and converted each of his 16 save chances (10H, 12BB, 54K)...Allowed a game-tying HR to Maikel Franco in the ninth inning of an eventual 11-inning, 5-4, Reds loss on 6/3 at Philadelphia...snapped a streak of 29 consecutive converted saves (7/4/14-5/30/15), which was the longest active streak in the Majors at the time...also snapped a 74.1-inning homerless streak (5/13/14-6/3/15)...Tossed the ninth inning for the National League in the All-Star Game at Great American Ball Park, striking out all three batters faced on 14 pitches...Recorded his 500th career strikeout on 7/19 vs. Cleveland...reached the plateau in 292.0IP to become the fastest to 500K (by innings pitched) in Major League history, surpassing Craig Kimbrel's record of 500K in 305.0IP, set earlier in 2015...tossed a career-high 44 pitches in the game (2.0IP, 2H, 1BB, 5K)...tossed 13 pitches the following night to earn the save vs. Chicago-NL...Allowed a game-tying leadoff HR to Ben Zobrist in the ninth inning on 8/18 vs. Kansas Cityy...snapped a season-high streak of 15 consecutive saves and a streak of 56 straight converted save chances at Great American Ball Park dating back to a blown save on 9/7/12 vs. Houston...was the longest home save streak since saves became an official statistic in 1969...Recorded his third career save of at least 1.2 innings on 8/31 at Chicago-NL...also had his second career plate appearance...reached on a fielder's choice in the six-run ninth inning of a 13-6 win...scored from first base-his first career run scored-on a Jason Bourgeois double.
2014
For the third straight season was voted by his peers to the National League All-Star team...established Major League records with 17.67 strikeouts per 9 innings, a strikeouts-to-hits ratio of 5.05-to-1 and highest percentage of batters struck out at 52.5...became the first pitcher to average 100mph (100.3) as documented by Pitch F/x...ranked seventh in the NL in saves...his save percentage of 94.7 (36-for-38) was the best in the National League and second-best in the Major Leagues (KC's Greg Holland, 46-for-48, 95.8)...saved 12 of Johnny Cueto's 20 wins...after a blown save on 6/28 at SF finished the season by converting 20 consecutive save chances...in 38 of his 54 apps produced at least 2 strikeouts and 13 times struck out the side...from 8/21/13-8/13/14 recorded at least 1 strikeout in 49 consecutive apps (50.2ip, 100k), a new Major League record for strikeouts in consecutive games by a reliever since 1900 (Bruce Sutter, 39g, 1977)...didn't allow a run in his last 15 apps, his longest scoreless streak of the season (15.2ip, 4h, 6bb, 32k)...twice allowed a career-high 4 runs (0.2ip on 6/20 vs Tor, 4bf on 8/17/day at Col)...his ERA in his other 52 apps was 0.68 (53.1ip, 4er)...from 5/23-6/11 retired a season-high 22 consecutive batters...allowed his only home run on 5/13 vs SD (Chase Headley) in his second appearance of the season...from 6/25-6/28 pitched 4 days in a row for the second time in his career (9/3-9/6, 2013) and then did it again from 7/8-7/11...in Mike Leake's 3-0 win on 7/29 vs Ari recorded his 100th career save...the week before the All-Star break shared National League Player of the Week honors with Andrew McCutchen (5g, 4sv, 5ip, 1h, 2bb, 13k)...was his first weekly award...began the season on the 15-day disabled list while recovering from 3/20 surgery to insert a plate and screws to stabilize the bones around his left eye...suffered the injury on 3/19 against the Royals in Surprise, when he was hit by a Salvador Perez line drive and suffered fractures of his eye and nose and a mild concussion...from 5/1-5/7 made 4 rehab apps for Class A Dayton and Class AAA Louisville, then made his first appearance for the Reds on 5/11 vs Col and saved the 4-1 win.
2013
For the second straight season was voted by his peers to the National League All-Star team...ranked T3rd in the NL with 38 saves, tying his career high established in 2012...for the second straight season made a career-high 68 apps...for the third consecutive season his fastball was rated the best in the league by managers...as the Reds battled for a playoff spot produced a 0.63era in his last 13 apps of the season...in 40 apps at Great American Ball Park posted a 0.66era and converted all 20 save chances...overall converted 38-43 save opps (88%), including his final 8 save chances of the season, 14 of his last 15 and 20 of his last 22...produced 2 saves of more than 1.0 inning (2ip on 8/21 vs Ari, 1.1ip on 9/14 at Mil)...in the 10-7 win on 8/21 vs Ari recorded his only career 2.0-inning save and his only career plate appearance (struck out vs Brad Ziegler)...suffered 2 of his 5 blown saves in consecutive apps on 5/16 at Mia and 5/19 at Phi, then from 5/20-6/19 recorded 10 consecutive saves over 13 scoreless apps, both season highs (13ip, 4h, 5bb, 26k)...struck out the side 13 times...from 9/3-9/6 pitched 4 days in a row for the first time in his career...on 9/8 vs LAD earned the 3-2 win in his 200th career appearance...from 4/4-4/24 did not walk a batter in 9.1 innings covering 10 apps (17k), both season highs...the Reds went 56-12 when he pitched...was on the club's Wild Card playoff roster but did not pitch.
2012
Finished eighth in the BBWAA's Cy Young Award voting and 12th in the MVP voting...was rated by managers the second-best reliever in the National League ... for the second consecutive season his fastball was rated the best in the NL ... was elected by his peers to his first All-Star team ... went to Spring Training battling for a spot in the starting rotation but spent the regular season in the bullpen after RHP Ryan Madson and RHP Nick Masset were disabled prior to Opening Day ... LHP Bill Bray joined them on the DL in April ... established career highs in apps, wins, saves, innings pitched and strikeouts ... from 9/11-9/21 missed 9g because of a fatigued left shoulder...finished the season with 4 scoreless apps after he returned (4ip, 1h, 3bb, 3k) ... posted a 0.68era vs NL opponents, who hit just .125 (62g, 36sv, 38svo, 66.1ip, 28h, 6r, 5er, 22bb, 115k, 1hr) ... averaged 15.32 strikeouts per 9 innings, the third-best ratio in Major League history (Craig Kimbrell, 16.66 in 2012; Carlos Marmol, 15.99 in 2010) ... struck out the side 9 times ... didn't move into the ninth-inning role full-time until 5/20 but still ranked T3rd in the National League in saves ... entered this season with 1 Major League save (7/6/11 at StL, 9-8 win in 13 innings) ... over 31 apps from 6/26-9/4 converted a club-record 27 consecutive save chances, the longest overall saves streak by a Reds pitcher since Francisco Cordero converted 29 straight saves chances covering the 2008 and 2009 seasons ... his franchise-record streak of 16 straight apps with a save was snapped when he pitched the ninth inning of the 7-3 win on 8/17 vs Chi ... led the Major Leagues with 13 saves in July and 11 saves in August and each month was named MLB's Delivery Man of the Month ... his 13 saves in July were 1 shy of the club record for saves in any month (Jeff Shaw, 14sv, September 1997) ... from 6/26-8/17 threw 23 consecutive scoreless apps (20sv, 22.2ip, 9h, 3bb, 45k), the best stretch by a Reds reliever since Arthur Rhodes tied the Major League record with 33 consecutive scoreless apps from 4/13-6/26, 2010 (30ip) ... Chapman's 22.2-inning scoreless streak in that stretch was the longest by a Reds pitcher in 2012 ... recorded 18 strikeouts over 10.0 innings before issuing his first walk of the season (Joe Mather, 4/22 at Chi)...didn't allow a run until his 16th appearance (15g, 19.1ip), on 5/17 at NYM ... didn't allow an earned run until his 25th appearance (24g, 29ip), a new club record and the Major Leagues' longest such streak since Bal's Will Ohman began the 2010 campaign with 25 apps before he allowed an earned run ... in his 25th appearance, a 5-4 loss vs Pit on 6/7, allowed his first earned run on back-to-back doubles by Clint Barmes and Michael McKenry leading off the 10th inning to snap his club-record streak of 8 consecutive apps (5/19-6/6) in which he pitched at least 1.0 inning without allowing a hit ... in the 9-4 loss on 5/17 at NYM suffered a blown save and allowed his first run of the season on a hit, 2 walks, an error and a sacrifice fly ... prior to that appearance had retired 22 of his previous 24 batters faced (infield single, 1bb, 14k) and his 19.1 innings pitched heading into that outing were the most by any reliever in the Major Leagues who hadn't allowed a run ... from 7/13-7/15 vs StL pitched 3 straight days for the second time in his career (9/9-9/11, 2010), then did it again from 8/10-8/12 at Chi and from 8/17-8/19 vs Chi ... retired the first batter 56-68 times (82%), stranded 12-15 inherited baserunners (80%) and converted 38-43 save opps (88%) ... the Reds went 60-8 when he pitched ... in the Division Series vs SF pitched in Games 1, 3 and 5.
2011
Among all National League rookies ranked T7th in apps, all in relief, in his first full season in the Major Leagues...from 5/16-6/23 was on the disabled list with left shoulder inflammation...from 5/23-6/21 made 9 rehab apps for Carolina and Louisville...in 38 apps after he came off the DL on 6/24 posted a 2.43era (37ip, 18h, 10er, 21bb, 56k)...began the season with 12 scoreless apps for the Reds (11.2ip) but allowed runs in each of 4 apps prior to his disabling (1.1ip, 2h, 10er, 12bb, 3k)...his season ERA excluding those 4 apps drops from 3.60 to 1.85 (48.2ip, 10er)...over 9 apps from 7/18-8/5 didn't allow a hit in 10.1 innings, the longest single-season hitless streak by a Reds reliever since Chuck McElroy's 11.1-inning hitless stretch from 4/25-5/17, 1994...during that stretch retired 30-31 batters (1bb, 17k), including a season-high streak of 17 straight snapped on 7/28 vs NYM when he walked Jose Reyes...earned his only Major League save in the 13-inning, 9-8 win on 7/6 at StL...had a team-best 4 pickoffs (Ari's Stephen Drew, Mil's Corey Hart twice, Bal's Mark Reynolds)...on 4/18 vs Pit hit 106mph on the GABP scoreboard gun...following the season made 2 relief apps in the Arizona Fall League (2.2ip, 1h, 1er, 2bb, 2k), then didn't pitch again the rest of the winter while recovering from general shoulder stiffness.
2010
Was 1 of 10 Reds players to make his Major League debut... began the season with Louisville, where he ranked fifth in the International League in strikeouts (125) and led the league in wild pitches (14)...in Baseball America's Best Tools issue, his fastball and breaking pitch were voted the best in the IL...made his first 13 apps for the Bats as a starter (5-5, 4.11) and his last 26 apps in relief (4-1, 2.40, 30ip, 17h, 12bb, 49k, converted 8-9 save ops, .156oba)...for Louisville, didn't allow a hit in his last 8 apps (8ip), in his last 20 apps posted a 0.83era (21.2ip, 2er) and in his last 13 apps opposing batters went 4-for-48 (.083, 13.1ip, 4bb, 25k)...in his final minor league appearance, on 8/27 vs Columbus, hit 105mph on the radar gun...on 8/31 was promoted and that night vs the Brewers made his Major League debut by throwing a perfect eighth inning with scoreboard pitch speeds of 98, 86, 102, 86, 100, 103, 101 and 98mph...struck out his first batter, Jonathan Lucroy, including one pitch clocked at 103.9mph...on 9/24 at SD threw all 25 pitches at least 100 miles per hour, with a high of 105 against Tony Gwynn and 3 others at 104...his pitch against Gwynn is the fastest ever recorded using the Pitch/FX system...for the season, 75 times reached at least 100mph on Pitch/FX...earned his first career victory in the 6-1 win on 9/1 vs Mil in just his second big league appearance...on 9/28 vs Hou threw a perfect ninth inning to earn the 3-2 win that clinched the NL Central Division title...in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Phi suffered a blown save and the 7-4 loss after the Phillies scored 3 unearned runs in the seventh inning following 2 Reds errors...pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the 2-0 loss in Game 3.

*Courtesy ChicagoBears.com