Running 2017 MLB regular season thread

Five Inning Jake 23 starts 134 innings 3.83 ERA 1.209 whip 112 era plus 4.10 FIP
Jon Lester 25 starts 146 2/3 innings 3.99 ERA 1.234 whip 107 era plus 3.69 FIP

 

Two years is not a fucking era!

 

You might wind up in hell for that post!

 

Yes, Arrieta is having a nice second half.

 

I think it's since 2008.

 

And he's having a better season than Lester.

 

Why? Dickie's the one who took us down this path with the post about Sale, which sure seemed like an attempt to tweak other posters. I'm just having a little fun with that.

 

I don't think I've been proven wrong in any way, in that my point(s) were never that Lester is better than Arrieta. It was that, in 2016, Arrieta was out-pitching his peripherals and that the media and fans had not yet caught on that his run of dominance was over. It remains so, but, indeed, he has made some adjustments and is pitching like a solid No. 2 right now.

Regarding Lester, my argument was that he was not "a big part" of the Cubs first-half struggles and certainly not as much as Arrieta was. (Though Arrieta was actually in the same boat - bad luck and diminished defense were making his numbers look worse than he was actually pitching.)

 

One, you used Arrieta's early-season performance to back up your argument about last season, which was bullshit in itself. Then you claimed you were only bringing up Arrieta over and over again early in 2017 because he was such a huge part of the Cubs' problem, which was also a load of crap, as demonstrated by the way you ignored all their other problems, including Lester. You talked about predictive statistics as part of your argument, saying that they showed Lester would be fine. Yet here he is still pitching well below his level in 2016 while Arrieta is outperforming him.

I brought up Lester because it was the clearest comparison to show that the real reason you kept bringing up Arrieta was the same reason you made the post about Sale, to troll somebody else.

You said Lester was not part of the problem in the first half, but he was and he continues to underperform. You also claimed his current numbers line up with the type of pitcher he is, one with an ERA around 3.90, and that he hadn't declined even though he his career ERA was 3.48.

Just as you did in the McCutchen argument, you keep moving the goalposts to avoid admitting you were wrong.

For those who are about to complain about this, please note that Dickie started this with the Sale comment and now he is dragging it out. He is certainly welcome to just let it stand. We both made our points and he clearly isn't going to admit to anything regardless of the evidence, so he could just move along. I'm guessing that won't happen, but perhaps we could find ourselves pleasantly surprised.

 

Is he mailing in the rest of the season?

 

I like Shulman, but I think he relies on the word "crushed" way too much.