Over his last four outings, the Reds' Cuban fireballer Aroldis Chapman has faced 19 batters and walked 12 of them. As Baseball Nation's Rob Neyer wrote earlier today, the Reds didn't seem concerned; in that feature he quoted Reds pitching coach Bryan Price:
"His arm slot gets too low," Price said. "He gets across the ball. He's pulling a lot of balls inside to right-handed hitters."
Confidence can also play into it when you struggle. Chapman has walked eight batters in his last three outings and has only gotten three outs.
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"I think the first part is a slight mechanical adjustment. The second part is that when he's out there, he's pitching with his confidence. When you struggle a while, you start to question yourself a little bit. I don't know that he's there, but I know it's a typical response."
Physically, Price said, Chapman is fine.
Over the course of less than 24 hours, Chapman went from "fine" to "placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation", according to this tweet from the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan:
Reds' reliever Chapman put on DL with shoulder inflammation before tonight's game with Cubs.
There's no word yet on who will replace Chapman on the Reds' 25-man roster. The Reds host the Cubs at Great American Ball Park Monday night at 7:10 p.m. EDT.