Jake Arrieta's Unlucky Season

[Jordan Tuwiner]

In every statistic you would want a young pitcher to improve upon, Arrieta has done so. Strikeout rate? He's striking out 8.07 batters per nine innings after striking out 5.94/9 in his first two seasons. Walk rate? He's slashed his walk rate from 4.39 BB/9 in his first two seasons to 2.49 BB/9 this season. As a result, his FIP has gone from 5.08 in his first two seasons to 3.88 this year.

......

As long as Arrieta continues to pitch as he has this season -- the same way that's gotten him a 3.88 FIP and 3.65 xFIP -- he may just become a consistent, #3 starter that the Orioles desperately need behind Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen.

A heavily debated topic on this forum.

[birdwatcher55]

Time for Jake to man up and prove he is a dependable starter

[Rising O's]

After the surgery, finally putting the elbow ailment behind him, I thought this could be his breakout year. The numbers look good, but he just looks too uncomfortable on the mound. If he ever gets on a win streak where he can finally believe he belongs, he will be a #3 and more. I'm still very optimistic.

[OriolesRedskins28]

Arrieta needs to be in AAA. He is an embarrassment out on the mound. He's just as bad as Matusz was. And while they're at it they can take Ayala and is 4.46 xFIP with him. A trade needs to be made for a back of the rotation starter because this is getting ridiculous.

[TuckerBlair89]

This was one of his worst starts this season.
I like Arrieta, but the amount of Walks he gave up tonight only will kill one in the end. Cannot walk guys when you have a 4 run lead.

[OriolesRedskins28]

To me it just shows how incapable he is of commanding his pitches at this time. Something needs to change and it needs to happen in the minors. Like Jordan was saying with Matusz, if the Orioles want to win there's no way they can keep trotting Arrieta out there every 5th day. I would rather see Steve Johnson or Miguel Gonzalez in the rotation at this point. Not that they are viable options but Arrieta has been that bad.

One of the MLBTR guys in a chat said that the one move the Orioles should make is to acquire a back of the rotation starter for a couple B/C mid level prospects and I couldn't agree more (a competent third baseman wouldn't hurt either).

[OriolesRedskins28]

To add to Jordan's "luck" argument, according to Fangraphs.com Arrieta pitched to a 3.89 FIP tonight.

With such great peripherals I think Jake actually isn't that far away from becoming a decent to solid ML starter but he is not there yet and I would prefer he work on those things in AAA at this point.