Chapmania has reached a Fever Pitch in Cincinnati

I turned on 700 WLW last night and heard the roar of what sounded like a postseason crowd. It was the 9th inning, and Aroldis Chapman had just finished mowing down Jason Heyward on a 100 MPH fastball. The Braves didn’t have a chance in the final frame. Everyone should have headed back to the hotels about a half hour earlier than when things officially got broken up. Baseball could start saving teams the trouble and the time of having to face the best power lefty I’ve seen in my lifetime.

The Reds won the game 4-3. Matt Latos was pretty solid. Brandon Phillips homered a couple of times. Baseball Tonight said that now that the Reds had things ‘straightened out’ they were going to win the NL Central by double-digits this season.

I don’t know about that, but I hope everyone out there is truly enjoying what Aroldis Chapman has done to date. All day I’ve wondered whether or not I should post the actual numbers, but I’m a superstitious guy. I want Chapman to keep rolling. So do you. Let’s not jinx anything and just leave it at this: the guy hasn’t allowed a damn run yet.

Joey Votto has just been Votto-like solid. Jay Bruce is again struggling. We’re all waiting on Brandon Phillips to get hot. But Chapman has truly arrived. As you look around baseball, no one has was a weapon this dominant. And he’s a Cincinnati Red for the foreseeable future, to have and to hold. To do whatever we want with.

Sit back and watch him mow down big leaguers like they’re helpless next time he climbs the hill. In all my years of baseball, I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It could be a summer of records for Chapman, and I think everyone will remember spring 2012 as when this dominant figure in the game arrived for good and set down his luggage.