September 2nd, 2010 
Brian 
It’s September, which means prospects galore are being called up to The Show. Rather than bombard our loyal readers with Now Pitching For post after Now Pitching For post, I made the executive decision to run a 4-for-1 special.
(Don’t tell anybody, but despite the title, one of these guys is a position player. I’m a rebel.)
***Twenty-year-old Jenrry Mejia is already a major league veteran, appearing in 27.2 innings over 30 games before being sent to Double-A Binghamton to stretch out as a starter. He did okay for himself in the Eastern League, I guess – 2-0, 1.32 ERA, 26 strikeouts in 27.1 innings. Eh, not bad. His performance there led to a promotion to Triple-A Buffalo, where he made just one start – eight innings, one run, five hits, one walk, nine strikeouts – before punching his ticket back to the majors.
***The Reds are plenty exciting already this season, with youngsters Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Mike Leake, Drew Stubbs, Johnny Cueto, Travis Wood, Homer Bailey, and others, contributing to the team’s increasingly dreamy season. Yonder Alonso gives them one more piece for the future. The 23-year-old Cuban hit .290 with 15 homeruns and 69 RBI between Double-A Carolina and Triple-A Louisville to earn a promotion to the pennant racing big league club. He made his major league debut yesterday, pinch-hitting for Brandon Phillips and grounding out in the seventh inning of a 6-1 Reds win.
***The very next inning after Alonso’s debut, Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress made his major league debut with a scoreless inning of relief (he allowed one hit, to Miguel Cairo, who was promptly erased on a double play). Jeffress is a talented young man who throws hard, but his career was almost derailed by two positive drug tests that severely dimmed his prospect star. The mere fact that he’s managed to control those problems and appear in the major leagues is very impressive and inspiring. I hope he keeps it up.
***Finally, the best thing about Aroldis Chapman’s promotion to Cincinnati was the headline that appeared on Red Reposter: “The Trembling Townspeople Stood in Silence as the Stranger Strode Confidently Through Town, Steely-Eyed and Stalk Straight. He was the Cubandolero, and He Had Come to Save Them.” The Cubandolero thing kills me, for some reason.
Anyway, Chapman gets multiple paragraphs here because his recent altercation with a radar gun (he made it work overtime by throwing a baseball 105 miles an hour) made his arrival in Cincinnati the most anticipated promotion this side of Stephen Strasburg. He was good in Louisville – 9-6, 3.57 ERA, 125 strikeouts in 95.2 innings – but took it to another level in the bullpen recently, throwing baseball as fast as anyone, ever. (If my math was right several years ago, Nolan Ryan’s best heat was somewhere in the 105-107 range – or, as it shall now be known, The Chapman Zone.)
Chapman’s arm might fall off someday from the exertion of throwing a ball that would be ticketed for reckless driving on any United States highway, but for now, he is the Cubandolero, a mythical figure that calls to mind the recent examples of Francisco Rodriguez, Joba Chamberlain, David Price, and other young men who arrived on the scene late and helped push an already good club to another level. I don’t blame Reds fans for being pumped.
