Yesterday’s game between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals is a prime example as to why pitchers win/loss record doesn’t matter. With Jake Arrieta on the mound, he himself will tell you he didn’t deserve to be credited with a win in the 9-8 marathon between baseball’s best rivalry.
Now, we will be giving some props to Jake on winning his 20th game without a loss, since in 99.9% of those games Jake has been lights out. While Wednesday’s performance will certainly rank fairly low on the most memorable games Jake has pitched in over the past 29 starts, it did allow him to extend the third longest winning streak for a pitcher to 20 games.
Jake Arrieta last 23 regular season starts (#Cubs 23-0)
20-0, 1.05 ERA, 162.1 IP, 86 Hits, 162 K, .153 Opp BA, 0.764 WHIP— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 25, 2016
If that isn’t impressive enough…
Jake Arrieta’s last loss was 7/25/2015.
From 7/26/2015 to now, 467 different pitchers have recorded at least one loss. #Cubs— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 25, 2016
Now I will say it again, not all wins and losses are created equal. Take John Lackey for instance, in his first start of the season Lackey gave up six runs in a game which he was credited with a win in Arizona. Then on May 11th he gave up a single run in a loss to the San Diego Padres. Let’s not take anything away from Arrieta, I have been on record many times in saying this is the second greatest stretch of pitching in the game’s history, only behind the great Bob Gibson.
While Jake’s greatness is apparent, and every time he takes the mound you assume the Cubs will win (as evidenced by the Cubs winning his last 23 consecutive starts), there is a glaring hole on this team that reared it’s ugly head on Wednesday.
Lefty relief pitching.
As I've talked about, the one thing the Cubs could use is a lefty pen upgrade. Ideally an awesome one but at least an upgrade.
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) May 25, 2016
In the seventh inning, Joe Maddon went to Travis Wood to face off against the dangerous Matt Adams.
CHC@STL: Adams cuts the lead to one with solo homer https://t.co/6xkMIL8MUj
— Chicago Style Sports (@ChiStyleSports) May 26, 2016
While Wood has proven to be somewhat valuable in the pen over the past year(ish), doesn’t anyone really think he is that lights out lefty-vs-lefty guy that will get the Cubs out of tough situations? I mean I get why Maddon went to Travis, Adams is batting .203 lifetime against lefties and that homer was just the seventh he’s launched against lefties, while 38 have come against righties. I also know lefties are hitting .213 against Travis over his lifetime, which should tell you Adam’s had about a 20% chance of succeeding in that situation.
The issue here is the Cubs are in dire need of a value position, and a position which there will be many other teams competing to acquire as well. The biggest potential name that could fit the Cubs needs has rumored to be the New York Yankees Aroldis Chapman, which would certainly cost a haul even in a non-competitive market. The Cubs would have the assets to get the trade done, but of course any potential trade sends ripples down Cubs fans as they are reluctant to consider moving prospects for anyone regardless of talent. The talk may all be for not as the Yankees may have righted the ship, winning seven of their last 10 games, which included a seven game winning streak.
While it is hard to put up an argument about improving a bullpen that has been fairly solid all season, but their performance over the past couple of weeks has left much to be desired. With a fear of being too right-handed, the Cubs can improve their depth and consistency by adding another lefty arm.
While opposing team’s lefties are hitting .210 against the Cubs as a whole, they get on base at a .333 clip, and the best success has come from right handers – Justin Grimm, Trevor Cahill, Pedro Strop, and Hector Rondon.
| Pitcher | Avg | OBP | Slug |
| Spencer Patton | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Clayton Richard | 0.350 | 0.435 | 0.400 |
| Neil Ramirez | 0.333 | 0.462 | 0.778 |
| Adam Warren | 0.263 | 0.440 | 0.579 |
| Travis Wood | 0.231 | 0.310 | 0.577 |
| Hector Rondon | 0.176 | 0.250 | 0.176 |
| Justin Grimm | 0.150 | 0.261 | 0.150 |
| Trevor Cahill | 0.111 | 0.333 | 0.259 |
| Pedro Strop | 0.111 | 0.360 | 0.278 |
| 0.210 | 0.354 | 0.389 |
While it is nice to have confidence that four of your righties can get both righties and lefties out, teams would be at a disadvantage if they didn’t have a “specialty” lefty to pitch against the toughest left handed hitters. Wood is the closest this team has to that.
While we wrote a couple of weeks back about how the Cubs could use an upgrade in left field with Jorge Soler struggling with the opportunity that he’s been given, the pen is still the biggest glaring hole on the team.
This is a nice problem to have!
In previous years, including last season, there were still many holes that needed attention. The Cubs had poor defense in areas, they had weaknesses in multiple positions, and they had weaknesses in both the rotation as well as the bullpen. But if we can sit here on May 26th, just before Memorial Day, and say the Cubs only really have one weakness – that is incredible.
While it is a long season, one in which many things typically happen throughout the regular season, that is why when you have a couple of small issues you push the team to correct them. Let’s make sure the great start, has an even better finish.
