The Atlanta Braves’ season is already lost, but there is at least one bright spot fans can take solace in and that is rookie reliever Mauricio Cabrera.
Cabrera is a flame-throwing right-hander from the Dominican Republic who made his major league debut on Monday against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians may have won the game 8-3 and handed the Braves’ their 50th loss in the process, but Cabrera quickly made Braves’ fans forget about the score when he came on to pitch the seventh inning.
The 22-year-old wasted no time showing off his prodigious gifts. His first pitch of the night clocked in at more than 100 miles per hour.
Mauricio Cabera's first pitch in @MLB was 100.59 MPH. That's the hardest first pitch recorded for a player in PITCHf/x era. @Braves
— Daren Willman (@darenw) June 28, 2016
Cabrera proved he was more than just a one-pitch wonder. His fastball was consistently in the 100 MPH range, including three that topped 102 MPH, which is something only one other MLB pitcher can regularly do.
https://twitter.com/Joe_TOC/status/747766735021871105
While he has a long way to becoming the next Aroldis Chapman, the early returns on Cabrera are good. He gave up just one hit Monday night and pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Cabrera was once again called upon to pitch in Wednesday night’s game, this time in the eighth inning, and he was quickly back to his flame-throwing ways. According to PitchFX, Cabrera even broke the 104-MPH barrier.
Velocities for #Braves Mauricio Cabrera in the 8th:
100-100-102-82-103-103-102-86
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) June 30, 2016
If you happened to miss Cabrera’s two appearances and are curious to see what a 103-plus MPH fastball looks like, you are in luck. Check out the video below.
Cabrera recorded a perfect two-thirds of an inning Wednesday, but despite his incredible fastball, he has yet to record a single strikeout this season. However, this should change in short order. Cabrera struck out an incredible 12.98 batters per nine innings in Double-A in 2015, but that came with an almost equally high walk rate and an unsightly 5.71 ERA. His strikeout rate was down to just 9.36 in 2016, but his walk rate was down as well and his ERA was down 2.5 runs.
The strikeouts will come, but so will the runs. Still, Cabrera looks legit, and Braves fans can celebrate having their very own Aroldis Chapman in an otherwise lost season.
