The Cardinals touched up Arrieta a bit in the NLDS, which is perhaps encouraging for the Mets. Those are all above-average swinging strike rates. His change gets whiffs 15 percent of the time, and his slider and curve get them 17 percent of the time. The fastballs don't get many swings-and-misses, but the offspeed stuff sure does. The four-seam fastball that he rarely uses average 95 miles per hour. Per Brooks, his two-seam fastball averages 95.3 miles per hour, his changeup 89.7 miles per hour, his slider 90.7 miles per hour and his curve 81.2 miles per hour. Mike Petriello broke down Arrieta's pitches in late June this year, pointing out that while he's capable of throwing hard, his four-seam fastball was just never that good-but his other pitches certainly are.
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He also changed the way he attacked opposing hitters, and he essentially figured out how to command his pitches. Arrieta significantly reduced his use of a four-seam fastball, instead throwing a two-seam as his most frequent offering. That remained the case this year, as he threw the pitch 29.6 percent of the time, according to Brooks Baseball. What the hell happened?īeyond the Box Score took a look at Arrieta's complete turnaround following the 2014 season and noted that his slider usage went way up. And he's been pretty great with runners on base, stranding 80 percent of baserunners this year, the fourth-highest rate among qualified starters in the game. On top of the strikeout, walk, and home run rates, Arrieta has also gotten ground balls much more often over the past two seasons than he had before.
And with a 1.77 ERA and 2.35 FIP this year in 33 starts, he's a Cy Young contender, right up there with Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw. Since coming up to the Cubs last year, his strikeout and walk rates have been excellent-9.40 and 2.08 per nine, respectively-and he's allowed just 0.35 home runs per nine. Before last year, his strikeout and walk rates were mediocre, and he gave up more than a home run per nine innings. Pretty much everything has changed drastically for Arrieta.
He has quite understandably not been back to the minors.
In 58 starts for the Cubs since, he has a 2.08 ERA and 2.31 FIP. Since then, though, he has been outstanding. and even after he was traded to the Cubs on July 2, he split his time between Triple-A and the Cubs' roster, though he had a 3.66 ERA with Chicago in nine starts.Įven last year, Arrieta didn't make his first major league start until May 3. Arrieta had a 7.23 ERA in five major league starts with the Orioles and pitched more in the minors than he did in the majors. He had entered the 2013 season with a 5.33 ERA in 334.1 innings of major league work, and things weren't going any better that season. The point here is that Arrieta was eminently forgettable at the time-which is understandable. But until being reminded very recently, I had no clue that I had seen Arrieta and heard Vice President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, mention him by name. I've seen every episode of that show and remember that episode pretty clearly because Camden Yards is pretty great. Traded to the Cubs by the Orioles during the 2013 season, Arrieta was one of just two Orioles mentioned in the episode of Veep that featured Camden Yards and some Orioles players the year before. I also have another film coming out in the new year called Ambulance, directed by Michael Bay.Jake Arrieta wasn't exactly a household name before last season. I have worked very hard on this film for many years and am very excited about its release.
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What projects do you have coming up next? I have a movie coming out this fall on Netflix called The Guilty that is directed by Antoine Fuqua and that my production company, Nine Stories, also produced. Every time I smell that scent, even now, even on people I run into randomly, I am reminded of her. She was someone I spent a lot of time with as a child. I also love the smell of the people that I love! One of my earliest scent memories is of my godmother. What are your favorite smells? I love the smell of a peeled orange and of lilacs. I think the idea of being out in the open ocean on a vessel like the Luna Rossa, harnessing the power of nature to move forward, to make progress, to venture to somewhere new, is just an incredible idea. Since the scent was inspired by sailing, did it evoke any memories for you? I am not an expert sailor by any means, but I do love sailing and have sailed since I was a little boy. Jake Gyllenhaal in the Prada Luna Rossa Ocean campaign Stone Bridge Creative