Theo’s Best Trade: Hint- It’s Not the Arrieta Trade
Jake Arrieta has been a machine of terminator-like proportions of late. Actually, for some time now. My wife recently commented that he is so intense he likely scares the batter’s into a strikeout before ever making a pitch. With a stare down like this, I am inclined to believe her.
With Arrieta’s second no-hitter in his last 11 starts and Bob Gibson-like run of 24 starts, the interwebs and blogs are stirring with the “re-examining” or “look back” on the Arrieta trade that brought him(and Pedro Strop), to Chicago. In fact, coming up on Thanksgiving of last year I actually wrote a piece that also eluded to the Arrieta deal being the deal Cubs fans should be most thankful for as well. Now don’t get me wrong, I still whole-heartedly agree that the Arrieta deal is up there with any deal ever made by a Chicago front office. By all accounts, statistically speaking, it is the best. Me being a statistic guy, I should be in full agreement, right?
Well not quite. My second-best “deal to be thankful for” on the top 5 reasons Cubs fans should be thankful for Theo has since super-ceded the Arrieta deal; the deal for Anthony Rizzo.
Now, this is not a statistic-driven decision, which is different for me. I am that a-hole you talk to in different chat groups who counters “opinions” with “statistics that support a different conclusion than that of your opinion”. Ya. That’s me. Sorry.
However, there are so many variables when it comes to the Anthony Rizzo deal that just continues to speak to me years later as I now watch him sell out his cereal and crush home runs as if they are equally easy.
More importantly, I continue to watch our team captain, our leader anchor a Cubs lineup that is certainly on a historic run differential pace to start the year. The “Murderers Row” Yankees team of 1927, often stated to be the greatest team, had a run-differential of 376 for the year. If the Cubs continue their current pace they will shatter that number with a run differential of 580. Even if we were to reduce the amount of games the Cubs played to 154 to match the 1927 Yankees total, the Cubs are still on pace for +551 run differential. So, ya, don’t listen to your White Sox or Cardinals friends, this is currently a team that is pacing historic numbers.
Which leads me back to Anthony Rizzo anchoring our lineup and the trade that brought him here. He was it. The Guy. The trend-setter. The culture-creator. A young man with the utmost respect for work ethic and the game of baseball. A young man that would face beating cancer with a smile on his face, while helping kids try to do the same. How did the Cubs get Anthony Rizzo, again? Let’s re-examine the beautiful, perfect storm that brought him here.
