Jake Arrieta wasn’t always the most dominate pitcher in baseball. No, the fifth round pick with first round talent had questions ranging from delivery, to how does his stuff translate to the big leagues.
While Jake will tell you his confidence has never wavered, the confidence of those around him had. Jake was pegged by Baltimore Orioles scouts as a potential middle of the rotation arm. A guy that can go out there every fifth day and remain competitive on the mound, but didn’t have the talent or stuff to be much more.
The Chicago Sun Times recently brought up how laughable Jake Arrieta’s scouting report was, and included this quote from Baseball Prospectus, baseball’s bible of sorts when it comes to its prospects.
Most scouts project him as a good No. 3 starter who can easily handle a workload of 200 innings and more. Those types are underrated at times by fans, but they’re worth their weight in gold to general managers.
What those scouts didnt account for is, that work ethic that could make him a 200+ innings pitcher, could also turn him into one of today’s best. While they can measure how fast he pitches or how much a curveball breaks, they can’t measure an individual’s drive and ability to push themselves further than what their talent says.
So when did the light bulb click for Arrieta? It appears to be the same time Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger were sent to Baltimore for himself and Pedro Strop.
Jake was in his age 27 year, the year in which stars have established themselves in the majors, but this marked the fourth consecutive year Arrieta had spent time back and forth between Baltimore and their Triple-A ballclub. Jake had posted a very questionable 20-25 record with a 5.46 ERA in his three plus seasons in Baltimore. Never pitching more than 120 innings, it appeared that the fifth rounder was a certain bust.
After an embarrassing start to the 2013 season, which saw his ERA balloon to 7.23, the Orioles sent him to the Cubs in the forementioned trade. This is where it all began to change, and Scott Boras — Jake’s agent — gives well deserved credit to Theo Epstein, the Ricketts family, and Chris Bosio and it is due to them allowing Jake to be himself on the mound.
Give Theo credit, man,” Boras said. “He made the deal to get him. That says a lot, because Jake had raw stuff. But the philosophy that Baltimore brought on Jake was not his own.
“He came here, and they really let him be himself. It’s a credit to Bosio and, really, the organization. The minute he got here, he started doing what Jake can do.”
Part of allowing him to be who he is, was allowing him to pitch from the motion he was comfortable in, even if it wasn’t an ideal throwing motion. That paid immediate dividends as he mentioned to Eno Sarris of Fangraphs.
“I moved away from being concerned with mechanics to being more conscious of the positioning of my body and being able to put it in certain spots more consistently.”
It was in Baltimore that they were concerned with a more fluid pitching motion, creating better mechanics through the ball and to the plate. While in theory this is good, Cubs fans should still remember mr. perfect mechanics Mark Prior and the arm troubles he endured. When he got to Chicago, the Cubs wanted him to pitch from a comfortable spot, as Jake had shown the ability to repeat and position his body effectively to give him the chance of repeated success. Example of each delivery is as shows.
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Jake finished his 2013 season with the Cubs, notching a 4-2 record with a 3.66 ERA in 51.2 innings pitched for Chicago.
Then began his climb to ace and elite status. In the 2014 campaign Jake posted a 2.53 ERA and a winning record (10-5) while throwing the most innings of his career (159). His arrow was definitely pointing up, but I don’t believe anyone thought this far up.
The magic to Jake’s turnaround is held somewhere in the freedom to conform back to his old pitching style, growth, work ethic, but maybe most importantly in his ability to command all of his pitches. When he is pinpointing a mid to upper 90’s fastball, while changing speeds on a slider — anywhere from 84-92 MPH — and buckling knees with a curve likened to Bob Gibson’s, you should have success, but Jake admits the biggest turning point is when he learned to command his change-up.
Yes, the change has been Jake’s favorite pitch this season, and not because he has added another strong pitch to his already formidable arsenal, it is because it allows him to stay in games longer.
“I’ve developed a feel for that now to where I can save (the changeup) till the fifth, sixth or seventh inning if I need it,” Arrieta said, “Not for swings and misses or called strikes — but for weak contact early in the count to get quick outs to remain in the game longer. It’s really game to game.”
So not only does he have dominating stuff, which has allowed him to rack up 236 strikouts this season, he has learned how to pitch.
That’s an odd thing to say about a pitcher, but this is true. Many guys can come into the majors based off a 97 MPH heater and a devastating slider, but if they never learn how to pitch instead of throwing, they are exposed in this league. Carlos Marmol was an example of this. He was more electric than any pitcher I’ve seen in some time, but once he was exposed as a thrower, his time in the majors quickly evaporated.
That progression from thrower to pitcher has put Arrieta into both Cy Young consideration, as well as a possible league MVP. The pitchers as MVP argument will not happen here, today, but that quick progression from a fading prospect to possibly the best in the league is monumental.
22-6 1.77 ERA 229 IP 236 K 0.865 WHIP
That line hardly speaks to Jake’s dominating 2015 performance. While all the other stats that will be tossed around, the most impressive is the evolution from a 4.00 plus ERA guy to the no doubt about it, you need one guy to win a ballgame, Arrieta is manager Joe Maddon’s man. While in a vacuum that might not be overly impressive, but with a rotation that has Jon Lester, a guy who you signed for $255 million for this purpose, the nod went to Jake Arrieta.
It has been a long winding road for Arrieta, but for Cubs fans’ money, there is no one they’d like to see on the mound more.
