Can hard-throwing Cabrera challenge Chapman’s throne?

Atlanta (AP) — Aroldis Chapman may finally have some competition for the title of baseball’s hardest-throwing pitcher. Of course, the Cuban left-hander raised the bar even higher over the past week. Chapman reached 105.1 mph Monday night, matching the fastest pitch since Major League Baseball started tracking speeds in 2008. Chapman — who was traded from the New York Yankees to the Chicago Cubs Monday — threw 13 pitches of at least 104 mph from Monday through Saturday. Nobody in baseball had reached that mark all season until then. Chapman’s fastball has been in a class by itself — to the point that MLB.com has a “Chapman Filter” on its Statcast leaderboard in case fans want to view the list of fastest pitches without him included. For the rest of this season, however, he might have some company. Mauricio Cabrera, a 22-year-old right-hander who made his major league debut for the Atlanta Braves in late June, reached 103.8 mph Monday night against Cincinnati. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Cabrera is 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA in 12 appearances, although all that power has led to only seven strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings. Cabrera’s four-seam fastball averages 100.7 mph, which is actually ahead of Chapman’s average fourseamer of 100.5. MLB rolled out its Statcast system last year, and fans can look up leaderboards for pitch speeds and other interesting categories. The longest home run of the season belongs to Nomar Mazara of Texas (491 feet on May 25), and the highest exit velocity was 123.9 mph off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton on June 9. That figure didn’t come on one of Stanton’s prodigious homers, by the way. It came on a double-play grounder.