A lot of thoughts, a lot of words, a lot of wins, a lot of pitches, a lot of innings, a lot of games and a lot of awards. A lot. A lot has been said about the National League Cy Young Award Winner and Cubs ace Jake Arrieta, but there’s still a lot more.
In a season with breakout rookies, MVP candidates, comeback stories, zoo animals and pricey free agents, Jake Arrieta stood out. He just did. Everything about his game and attitude actually stood out when so many other things could have. Even though a lot has already been said and read, there’s always more. And our friend Sahadev Sharma came through with a really good one on Arrieta that’s worth a read.
In his most recent player profile on Jake Arrieta, Sharma tackles yet another angle on the righty. What begins as a compliment toward Arrieta’s character and off-field presence, concludes as a forward-looking analytical piece on his workload and plans for the offseason.
[adinserter block=”1″]To give you a tease from both halves, Sharma shares (which should be the name of his one-man show) an interaction between himself and Arrieta, where Arrieta was too busy to address some questions before a game. Instead of dismissing Sharma altogether, Arrieta promised to return as soon as he had the time. Now, I’ve not been in the dugout or around the players, but I’m sure that’s a promise reporters hear all too often. However, after finishing his post-game routine, Arrieta sought out Sharma and delivered some interesting, thoughtful and insightful comments. This stuck with Sharma, not only for the content of his interview, but for the thoughtfulness and sincerity.
In a more baseball related discussion, Sharma relays an interesting new statistic that Arrieta also led in in 2015: percentage of starters innings pitched. In 2015, Jake Arrieta threw 24.2% of the starter innings pitched for the Cubs – the most in the majors. While he was fantastic throughout the season and stayed healthy thereafter, there’s little doubt that it affected him in the playoffs.
For more on what his plan was last season, what it should be next season much more, make sure you check out Sharma’s piece.