Jake Arrieta was brutally honest with the media about his rough start on Sunday. “Really feel like the Dodgers didn’t beat us today, I beat us,” he said according to Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com.
That’s actually a pretty accurate assessment. In the fifth inning, Arrieta walked the number eight hitter, plunked the number nine hitter and then loaded the bases by walking leadoff man Carl Crawford. Then Mark Ellis cut the Orioles lead to one with a two-run single to left center field and that was the end of Arrieta’s day.
“If you watch the first couple of innings, there is no reason I’m not pitching in the eighth today. That is frustrating and using the bullpen too much is frustrating. I don’t want to beat myself up too much about it, but I will today. Got to clean it up.”
It took Arrieta just 14 pitches to record the first three outs of the game and nine to get through the second. Suddenly, he lost command of his pitches in the third and threw 37 pitches (19 for strikes), but bounced back with a 15 pitch effort in the fourth.
Orioles fans were pricing bus tickets to Norfolk for the 27-year-old righty on Sunday afternoon, hoping to see Jair Jurrjens, Freddy Garcia or Zach Britton take his place in Baltimore. While his struggles may land him on the Tides roster, the O’s won’t be giving up on Arrieta anytime soon. He throws up 97 MPH with movement, but struggles with command. If the Orioles gave up on him, 29 teams would line up to try and help him find consistency.
You watch Jake Arrieta dominate hitters the way he did in the first inning against LAD and you understand why O’s think he’s capable of more
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 21, 2013
The stuff is there for Arrieta and the Orioles hope they can make the adjustments needed to help him locate his pitches through seven, eight, or, maybe even, nine innings.
this guy has great stuff, but his psyche sux. if he would stop being such an ignorant prick and play some ball, he could be a no. 1 on the team. he’s so stubborn trying paint the edges not trying to give into hitters that he screws himself.
Jake,
Stop nibbling, go out there like a hungry bear. Why fool around when you have a 98 mph stuff, put it over the plate! Don’t piss around and try to be cute. Leave the cutesy stuff for guys like Mystery Man!
I like Jake and I’m not ready to let him go but he obviously can’t work out whatever his issue is here in Baltimore, and I don’t think a few weeks or even a couple of months in Norfolk are going to do that much at this point.
Knock him back to Bowie, make him work back to Norfolk, and then make him stay there all season. Let Rick “the Magician” Peterson work with him as long as humanly possible and make him be consistent. If he can do that, then give him a chance back at the major league level. We have plenty of depth at pitcher at the moment so it shouldn’t be hard to keep him down in the minors until he gets whatever it is fixed.
Nothing short of Dave Duncan coming out of retirement will make Arrieta into a good starting pitcher. Remember Kyle Boller throwing a ball through the goal posts from his knees? This is a similar issue. Some guys are born with outstanding arms, and just never learn how to control their stuff consistently. Edwin Jackson throws 92-94 with one of the nastiest sliders in the game. Jonathan Sanchez threw a no-hitter. I watched Oliver Perez dominate one out of every five games that he pitched in. They all have outstanding arms, but just don’t have the pinpoint control necessary to be great pitchers. Neither does Arrieta.
Jake has to learn to trust his stuff and realize baseball is a team sport with eight other guys behind him all working toward the same goal. That said what are the Orioles doing- Alex Burnett-WTH? With Freddy and Jair waiting in the wings and Wednesday in need of a starter. I ain’t feeling Alex Burnett.
Trade him now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,