I've already led with Jake Arrieta once this season, where I talked about his need to change his approach given that his Slider just isn't cutting it these days. After yesterday's 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks against the Cardinals, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that he'll make all the adjustments to get back on track in the near future. That two-run HR to Matt Carpenter was a complete mistake Fastball that he wouldn't make in the past, and that doesn't have to do with a repertoire shift. I feel so conflicted here. On one hand, it's a .355 BABIP with a 60.9% LOB rate, he's brought his walk numbers from its atrocious 2016 levels to a great 2.62 BB/9, and he's hold a 3.56 SIERA + 23.5% soft contact. On the other, his groundball rate has plummeted to 40.2%, hard contact comfortably above 30% for the first time since 2010, and a 4.15 FIP is somewhat believable here. This is seven straight starts of 3+ ER we're dealing with here and an IPS just above 5.5. That's horrendous for Arrieta standards. I think it does get better, though it's hard for me to turn down getting someone like Zack Greinke, Gerrit Cole, Lance McCullers or Michael Fulmer at this point.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
