Does Jake Arrieta’s no-no help him contend with Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw for the NL Cy Young Award?
The Cubs’ real ace ain’t Jon Lester. The Kershaw-Greinke combo is just ridiculousness. A Matt Harvey innings-limit makes Mets’ fans hysterical. We witnessed the end of an era in Philadelphia. The Yankees suffered a big blow to their postseason chances. Lastly, Big Papi added even more to his large legacy.
This is The Weeks That Were.
Jake ‘N Bake
After walking just one batter (Jimmy Rollins) in nine innings over only 116 pitches while striking out 12, Jake Arrieta successfully no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 2-0 win on Sunday, August 30. The masterful performance pushed up Arrieta’s record to 17-6 and lowered his ERA as his strikeouts rose to 178 – good for ninth-best in the majors after the game. This matchup was the fourth time the NL Cy Young candidate took a no-hitter past the seventh inning during his career, but he never completed the feat the other three times.
Starlin Castro’s error was responsible for bringing aboard the only other Dodgers’ baserunner all night long. Enrique Hernandez crushed the ball straight to Castro during the third inning, but Castro failed to reel it in after the ball took a short bounce, bringing Hernandez to first. Even though the scorekeeper ruled it as an error, both the Dodgers and Arrieta agree that Hernandez had actually hit the ball. “I thought it was a hit,” Arrieta said surprisingly. “It was a tough play, a short hop.”
Either way, what’s done is done. It should’ve been a hit, but history will forget the error and forever remember Arrieta’s dominant performance for the rest of time. “The stuff was good, commanded the ball well. Kind of speechless right now,” Arrieta said after the game.
Despite this historic effort from Arrieta, though, the competition for the Cy Young Award is…
A Two-Man, One-Team Race
Teammates have only finished first and second in Cy Young voting thrice in MLB history, but the fourth will happen this season, I assure you. In the red corner, we have Zack Greinke. Think about the fact that Greinke owns the league’s lowest opponent batting average (.192), on-base percentage (.233) and slugging percentage (.280). Let’s also not forget that his WHIP (0.856) is also the league’s lowest. Essentially, the guy is a nightmare for hitters. They can’t hit his pitches or even draw any walks off him. Plus, his league-leading 1.68 ERA gives him a shot at finishing with the league’s lowest ERA since 1995’s 1.63 ERA by Greg Maddux. That’s not all, though, as he’ll also have an opportunity at finishing Clayton Kershaw’s unrivaled four-year streak as the league’s ERA leader.
-This GIF was taken from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tumblr
In the blue corner, we have Clayton Kershaw, who shouldn’t be slept on. He does lead the league in FIP (2.08), xFIP (2.10) and FanGraphs’ version of WAR for pitchers (7.3). Curt Schilling’s and Randy Johnson’s feat of 300 strikeouts in a season can still be replicated by Kershaw this year, who currently leads the league with 259.
-This GIF was taken from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tumblr
Some may say that the league-leading WAR tips the scales in Kershaw’s hand from a sabermetrics standpoint. But what if I told you that Baseball-Reference’s version of WAR for pitchers give Greinke the league-leading total of 8.0? It more than muddies the water from a sabermetrics view. When you consider that the rest of Greinke’s numbers are more impressive, it kinda makes you fully turn your head and lock-on to Greinke as the future Cy Young winner. Of course, Kershaw still has a bevy of evidence to support his cause, as well. Heck, Greinke and Kershaw could split the vote, which could pull Arrieta to victory in some unforeseen miracle. Arrieta is still the only one of the trio to pitch a no-hitter this season and leads the league in what matters most – wins (19). You never really know, but my smart money is on Greinke.
Matt’s Melodrama
Matt Harvey’s innings limit fiasco was coming to a fever pitch around September 5. The Mets are practically locked into the playoffs as the NL East champions. Harvey’s 2.88 ERA in his first season back from an 18-month layoff brought on by Tommy John surgery has helped the Mets get this close to reaching the postseason for the first time since 2006. However, Mets’ fan were prepared to abandon the ace pitcher after thinking he abandoned them and the team. Wait…what? Let me clear things up for you.
On September 4, Mets assistant GM John Ricco promised that Harvey agreed to skip regular season starts so he could pitch in the playoffs. Why would he have to skip starts in the place? Well, Dr. James Andrews recommended that Harvey should only pitch 180 innings this season, and Harvey was already at 166 at the time. Even if Harvey skipped the rest of his regular-season starts and continued pitching in the playoffs, his innings would likely go past 200 if the Mets made a deep playoff run. Fast forward to September 5 and Harvey told reporters that he was only focused on his September 8 start against the Nationals and that he was unsure if he’d pitch beyond that.
He then dodged a direct question about his innings limit by saying that he was focused on his next start. This was the result…
I hope Matt Harvey understands he just became the first player to publicly abandon his team before the playoffs. Good luck with that, kid.
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) September 5, 2015
I never want to see Matt Harvey play for the @Mets again. #33 and his agent are a disgrace.
— Jay Flannelly (@jflannez19) September 5, 2015
Matt Harvey is DEAD to me. #Mets
— BK (@Base718) September 5, 2015
If Matt Harvey does this, I'll never look at him the same ever again
— Steve Naranjo (@Steve_Naranjo) September 5, 2015
So yeah, people got pissed. Honestly, they had every right to be considering that Harvey was against the six-man rotation, which would’ve reduced his innings count. Not to mention, the Mets pledged on February 20 not to shut down Harvey if they make the postseason. Harvey did go on to play against the Nationals, allowing eight hits (all singles) while striking out six over the course of 5 1/3 innings in just 74 pitches. This currently bumps up his innings total to 171 2/3, making him just 8 1/3 innings shy of his limit. This begs me to ask the question, how much of a health risk is it for Harvey to pass his innings limit? How do doctors even come up with that number, anyway? How did innings become the benchmark for a pitcher’s workload, when the total amount of pitches are obviously the most accurate way to measure how much a pitcher has worked? In roughly seven fewer innings than his career-high innings mark (178 1/3) set in 2013, Harvey has thrown 164 fewer pitches this season than he did in 2013. Therefore, Harvey has thrown fewer pitches per inning this year and has thus worked less per inning this year than he did in 2013. Also, please note his career-high IP was 178 1/3 innings. His 2015 innings limit is 180. It seems apparent that his innings limit is based solely off his career-high IP and nothing scientific. It’s merely a guess.
Harvey will likely be fine if he passed his innings limit and pitched in the playoffs. Seriously, does nine more innings pose that much more of a health risk to him than eight? That notion is absurd. Besides, why else would you have him on the team if you can’t use him when you really need him? I mean, you play to win the game, right? So why not have your best guys out there during a rare opportunity to bring home a title, even if it poses a minimal extra health risk for a key player’s future? After examining the trade-off, I think it’s well worth the risk. I’m just glad Harvey attempted to end the debacle with an open letter to Mets’ fans saying that he will play in October.
Amaro No Mo
When the Phillies won the NL East for five straight years from 2007-11, Ruben Amaro served as both the assistant and head general manager during that span. However, the franchise has failed to make noise ever since and hit their lowest point in the month after the 2013 All-Star break when they won just five games in that span. As a result, the writing has been on the wall for Amaro for some time and on September 10, he was finally relieved of his duties as the Phillies’ general manager.
The organization has decided to go in a new direction by hiring an analytics guy with no prior ties to the Phillies, Andy MacPhail. This signing will usher in a new era where the Phillies no longer keep older, declining players out of loyalty and sentimental value – an era where advanced metrics dictate the team’s baseball decisions above all else.
One-Legged Tex
Mark Teixeira will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his right leg from a ball he fouled off it on August 26. Teixeira hasn’t played since then, and the club wondered why his leg hasn’t healed. Well, now they know why as the fracture was diagnosed on Friday after an MRI. The Yanks were then bludgeoned by five Blue Jays home runs in an 11-5 loss at Yankee Stadium that night. Talk about an insult to injury, huh? As of Sunday afternoon, the Yankees are 4.5 games behind the Blue Jays for the AL East lead, and their offense has taken a substantial hit without Teixeira’s big bat.
Welcome to the 500 Club
After clubbing two home runs in Saturday’s 10-4 win against the Rays, David Ortiz became the fourth Dominican-native, fourth Red Sox player and 27th Major Leaguer to smash 500 home runs in league history. No. 499 came occurred when Matt Moore’s 1-2 fastball was driven over the right field fence as a three-run shot during the first inning.
No. 500 then came off a 2-2 pitch from Moore when Big Papi led off in the fifth. Even the Red Sox’s haters must’ve received goosebumps from the scene that followed. After hitting home run 500, Ortiz slowly trekked around the bases, then put his fingers to his lips upon arriving at home plate. He then pointed to the heavens as the club’s dugout and bullpen ran out to congratulate their old slugger.
Jonathan Ebanks is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jonathan, check out his archive and follow him @hogz4lyfe.
