Check out what Dusty Baker said about Aroldis Chapman last night:
“Can you afford to give him three or four days off so he can throw as hard as he did tonight? Or will he get conditioned to going a couple of days in a row? Remember, everybody wanted him to be the closer. You can’t be the closer right now going a couple of days a week. A closer has to go three, four, five days in a row sometimes. Then, you might not use your closer for a week. That’s how things go.â€Â
Ummmm….sorry, Dusty. That’s just not true. Everybody wanted Chapman to be a starter; at least, everyone here at the Nation did (and does).
If Aroldis Chapman can’t pitch “a couple of days in a row,” the ideal solution is to move him to the rotation. Even before it started to become clear that Chapman isn’t ideally suited for bullpen work, it was obvious to most observers that having him start games was the perfect way to maximize his value. Of course, we’ve been saying this same thing for months and months.
Send Chapman to Louisville and put him in the rotation, immediately.