Reynaldo Lopez-A Bolt from the Blue

When you watch enough minor league baseball,sometimes you can get a bit numb to things.
Games can become dreary and players become routine,but then are nights like last night when you are surprised to the point that makes you realize why you watch the games.

Reynaldo Lopez may not look the part of a power pitcher,but he sure impressed me in his first appearance in Hagerstown.

Lopez had appeared in two games with the Suns earlier in the season,but both games were on the road,so this was my first game in seeing the Dominican righthander pitch.
Lopez entered the game with the best ERA in the NY/Penn league with Auburn with a number of 0.75 in seven starts,but he had less than impressive numbers in his two Suns starts,so I wasn't sure what to think.

I do now after a sharp start against Greenville that saw Lopez pitch six innings,whiff nine and allow just two hits,one of which was a blooper off the end of the bat.
Lopez throws hard.
As in tremendously hard.
So hard that Bill Cover and I remarked just how loud the pop of the mitt sounded at times to the point of resembling the loud crack you hear from a good firecracker.
For the all of the hype on Lucas Giolito and it's deserved,I haven't heard the catcher's glove ring like that in the starts that I have seen Giolito pitch this season.
It was reported to us that some radar guns (I have always wanted one of those) had registered Lopez as high as 101 MPH during last night's contest.
Normally,without seeing the gun,I would dismiss such things as hyperbole.
I will not this time as I saw (and heard) the pitches-I believe it.
This is a prospect that is flying way under the radar and at just 20 years old,the Nationals may have found themselves a arm for the future that could develop into a fine top to middle part of their rotation down the road.
There is plenty of refinement needed,but the raw ability is there.

Nights like last night are the type of nights that make following this game fun.
When someone without a large background to draw from suddenly shows up and makes you sit up and take notice,it's always a great feeling.
Reynaldo Lopez may or may not be a big leaguer and he has plenty of distance still to go,but I'll remember him one way or another on a chilly (yes,chilly) night in July that he arrived like a bolt from blue and popped that glove.
That is just another reason that I love this game.....