Jake Arrieta’s Incredible Second Half March and Other Bullets

jake arrieta cubs roadWith the doubleheader sweep last night, the Chicago Cubs guaranteed themselves a winning record in 2015. That’s the first time they’ll finish with a winning record since 2009. At 82 wins with 22 games remaining, you can start doing the math one where the Cubs can realistically finish. It’s insane to think that 95+ wins is not a stretch.

  • ERA is not a perfect stat, subject to the vagaries of “errors”, sequencing, BABIP, defense, and inherited runners scoring, but, hey, it’s a heck of a lot better than some other stats out there. So it’s pretty cool to see the following number next to Arrieta’s ERA mark so far this year: 1.99. He’s also one pitcher win away from 20, which, while I will always maintain the “pitcher win” stat is a blight on baseball understanding, it’s an important figure for some voters out there. If Arrieta gets to 20+ wins while keeping his ERA under 2, he’s going to get serious Cy Young consideration regardless of what Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw do. Since Arrieta will be right there by any metric, however he gets the award would be cool by me. The last Cubs Cy Young winner was Greg Maddux in 1992.
  • Once again, Jake Arrieta is really good. Really, really, really, really good:
  • The side story to that infographic: man, offense is so down these days.
  • Joe Maddon says who starts tomorrow’s bullpen day will depend on how today’s game goes and how the match-ups shake out (Cubs.com). Among the options: Travis Wood, Clayton Richard, Trevor Cahill, and Carl Edwards, Jr.
  • With their homers yesterday, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber propelled this year’s Cubs to a new team record for rookie homers, with 60 (Cubs.com).
  • Bryant’s up to 90 RBI (another not-so-great stat, though it’s a fun counting number), which is a new rookie record for the Cubs (Cubs.com), besting the previous mark of 86, shared by Billy Williams and Geovany Soto. RBIs are not a predictive stat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the fact that Bryant actually did drive in that many runners. Bryant’s also one homer away from Williams’ rookie home run record.
  • If you missed the Kyle Schwarber defensive highlight, in addition to his homers, here’s the great catch in left:
  • Your browser does not support iframes.

  • I’m not sure how the outfield wall remained standing. Must be propped up or something.
  • The Cardinals have been historically “clutch.”
  • Random, but interesting:
  • The Cubs Twitter account remains awesome:
  • If you missed it earlier, here’s your Scoreboard Watching. Also, fun with Kyle Schwarber’s homer and trip yesterday.

    written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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