Just wanted to mark this down here to see if Meatpants is right. He guaranteed that Jake Arrieta will be better with the Cubs than he was with with the Phillies. Their pitching infrastructure is better and will make him better.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

He had a losing record, a four and a half ERA, and a WHIP of nearly 1.5 with the Phils. He could do better than that and still be a very "meh" guy in the rotation.

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Oh, wow, can you let me know his catcher's ERA too?

Jake will prove serviceable.

If the offense hits, things will take care of themselves.

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I hope you are right. But I just dont think his pitching style ages well. He is mid 30s now and I fear he is just going to get worse and worse.

IMO they would have been better spending that 1 yr deal on bringing Lester back

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Between Lester and Jake, which guy do you think is more likely to post a .500 record with a 4.30ish ERA and a WHIP around 1.2-1.3?

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Lester.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Disagree 100%. I don’t know what Jakes problem was in Philly, how much he was hurt and how much of an impact it actually had on him being bad but Lester is done. Jake’s stuff still moves a little bit , he has a better chance of missing a lot more bats than Lester ever will anymore .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Could be.

I'm just pointing out that Arrieta wasn't all that good in Philly. Saying he will "be better" back in Chicago isn't setting the bar very high.

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I agree it is not setting the bar high, just something I am interested in and wanted to be able to find this in the future.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I hope you are right.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Lester doesn't miss bats but he throws strikes.

Arrieta has had his Oriole days wildness resume. Plus the guy relies on his changeup a lot more.

I'd rather have Lester but it's a crapshoot who will be better.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Both of them had decent starts about 60-65% of the time the last couple of years, with the rest of the starts being various levels of horrible. Lester got torched by the White Sox twice last year and that raised his ERA by about a run.

I think this really came down to Ross not wanting to have to DFA Lester if he totally fell apart this year. I think they will have a quick hook with Arrieta much of the time, but there may be a couple of starts where he has to go out there and eat 115 pitches to save the bullpen.

Ideally they will go Hendricks, Adzolay, Arrieta much of the time, so they have a rested bullpen for Adzolay as he is almost certainly going to be limited to 18 batters most of the year due to the reduced 2020 season.

The $7m for Arrieta pays for itself just by letting them limit Marquez' innings and service time. It will be interesting to see what they do with Marquez - they didn't use an option for him last year since they waited until the end of the season to call him up. He had pitched 103 innings in 22 starts at A ball in 2019, so letting him stay at EXST in April and then getting 10 five inning starts at Iowa will get him far enough into the season to avoid Super Two status if he merits a call up.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Is the guy that "fixed" Arrieta still here? If not, I'm not sure why he would be better. His fastball is only down 1-2 mph from his heydays, but most pitchers don't have a velo renaissance at 35, plus most people say it was the juice and not so much a guy that made him pitch better.

When they were discussing it they mentioned Arietta throws too many sinkers into the launch angle guy’s wheelhouse. Claimed he needs to locate higher.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

That’s a big if.

That's not even an if, that's an unrealistic hope.

It could be a very good rotation.
- Bruce Levine on Cubs starters.

No way he believes that.

id like to take credit but Vito and Clawmaster called it over the weekend : viewtopic.php?f=156&t=124620

there is no pressure to win this year. So that will help Arietta. I think he goes 12-12 if you have 162.

It would be a minor miracle to be honest.

I'd rather have Jake for one year at 6 then Lester. That is not saying much though.

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If the steroids are good, he might be an average pitcher

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

“Wish we had him ....years ago.”

“We did.”

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Yup, the only way an aging pitcher improves is with a bit of chemical enhancement. Remember reading about Arrieta eating kale all the time during his success with the Cubs...know several vegetarians that also eat kale all the time and they are no where near as ripped as he was during his Cubs stint.

A trained eye can tell right away if Lester is on and it's all based on how effective his cutter is that day. He no longer has the velocity anymore, so he's got to hit his spots and get the benefit of the doubt on all the borderline pitches that are an inch or two off the outside corner.

So far it looks like meatpants is wrong.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Nobody thought he would be good this year.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Did you read the original post?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Nobody who isn't a schmuck.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

He's also an anti-vaxxer on top of it. Get rid of him!