Aroldis Chapman has long been known as the pitcher with the most heat in Major League Baseball, but he might have some competition coming up.
Michael Kopech, a pitching prospect for the Boston Red Sox, threw a fastball that put anything Chapman has thrown this year to shame (Update: welp, not anymore). Kopech touched 105 mph in a game Wednesday night.
This is Kopech throwing, although it doesn’t show the 105-mph bomb:
Kopech’s manager, Joe Oliver, was stunned (via the Boston Globe):
“I’ve never seen it before. When we were doing the reports last night, we had to double-check, but there was another gun that had that reading. You knew he was throwing firm. With the naked eye, you can’t tell the difference between 100, 101, and 105. It’s coming pretty quick.”
Per BaseballSavant.com, the hardest pitch thrown this year in the majors was by Chapman, at just over 103 mph. But for Kopech to touch 105 at 20 years old is pretty remarkable.
[Boston Globe; Photo Credit: MLB.Com]
