Monday, November 23, 2009
NY Daily News: Yankees & Red Sox battle for hard-throwing Cuban lefty Aroldis Chapman
Get ready for another international incident. Many in baseball believe either the Yanks or Sox will sign Aroldis Chapman, a 21-year-old left handed pitcher who has hit 102 miles per hour on the radar gun. Chapman, who defected from Cuba last July and is a free agent, might be the best pitching prospect not already in a major league organization.
“He is an extremely talented guy,” says one baseball executive who has seen Chapman pitch. “My bet is that it’ll come down to the Yankees and Red Sox, like it always does now. Most of us believe that. To them, it’s only money.
How much should Chapman really get? While he’s being compared to Strasburg, that contract is not a good parable to reality because if Strasburg had been a free agent, he may have gotten Matusazka money IMO. Yes, that $51.1111 million signing bonus counts, despite what Peter Gammons or Sully from Southie would tell you.
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