The tail end of 2014 and it seemed as if every other start Chicago Cubs pitcher, Jake Arrieta was taking a no-hit bid deep into games. Then in 2015, he became a top-10 pitcher in all of baseball, winning the National League Cy Young award. 2016 started as 2015 ended, Jake was one of the most dominant pitchers in all of the game. Not only was he impossible to score on, he was near impossible to hit.
Then something happened. I don’t know if anyone is exactly sure what, but something definitely happened. The result of whatever happened was a loss of command of the most deadly pitch in baseball, the Jake Arrietta slutter (slider/cutter).
With the loss of command, Jake relied on the pitch less and less, opting to throw the slider 18% of the time in 2016. In contrast, Jake relied on the slider 28% of the time in 2015. Jake has relied upon the slider in just 18% of his pitches thus far in 2017 as well.
Another cause for concern is certainly the loss of velocity. While Jake swears that velocity is something fans and media think and talk about and it doesn’t matter as much to players – there is certainly something going on here. When Jake threw only two sinkers all of last year slower than his average sinker this year, there is certainly something to talk about.
When a pitcher loses command and velocity it means one of (or both of) two things, bad mechanics or injury. With Jake and all of the Cubs organization convinced that Jake is perfectly healthy, then it is mechanics. There is something, consistently wrong with Jake’s mechanics and it has taken almost a year for Jake to sort it out.
I loved an interview Jake had on WSCR-AM 670 The Score with Dan Bernstein and Jason Goff. In the interview, Arrieta was asked if he knows when there is something mechanically wrong when he pitches. Jake affirmed that he does, and shared his philosophy on how to rectify the mechanical error. His response was to fix it after the game. I agree with that, and that. It allows him to concentrate on minimizing the damage during the game.
The thing is if the mechanical issue is this wrong and this bad, and Jake and pitching coach Chris Bosio are having this much trouble fixing things – maybe it’s unfixable?
I hate to say this but, maybe his unorthodox pitching style is causing problems in fixing things. I can hear the fans say now, “the Cubs allowing Jake to pitch the way he does has allowed him to become a great pitcher!” Which is true, but what I am trying to say is, maybe it becomes a much more difficult task to fix what is wrong when he starts from such an unorthodox place. What if, because he is so unorthodox, we never see the 2015 through the first two months of 2016 Jake Arrieta again?
With Jake hell bent on getting ace money, what if we never see the “ace Jake Arrieta?” It is a real possibility that Jake leaves the Cubs after the 2017 season. Maybe he figures it out elsewhere or maybe he doesn’t. Or maybe Jake goes out and throws a complete game shutout on Sunday and we’re all wrong.
I hope it’s the latter…
