Levine: Cubs' Jake Arrieta Wins NL Cy Young In Close Vote
By Bruce Levine--
(CBS) The award for the best pitcher in the National League was truly a three-man race between Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta, Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke and Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw.
The final result favored the man who won the most games in baseball and had the most dominant second half of any pitcher in big league history.
After a spectacular season, Arrieta has been named the NL Cy Young winner, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced Wednesday evening. Arrieta garnered 17 of a possible 30 first-place votes and finished with 169 total points. Greinke finished with 10 first-place votes and 147 points. Kershaw had three first-place votes and 101 points.
It's the first Cy Young of Arrieta's career, and he became the fifth player in franchise history to be bestowed with the honor, joining Greg Maddux (1992), Rick Sutcliffe (1984), Bruce Sutter (1979) and Ferguson Jenkins (1979).
Arrieta finished 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. He had an incredible second half that included a 0.75 ERA, the lowest post-All-Star break mark in MLB history among qualified pitchers. He had 236 strikeouts in 229 regular-season innings.
What made the 29-year-old Arrieta's season even more remarkable was that he came from the lowest point of his career in 2012 to a resurgence that nobody could have predicted.
Arrieta was traded from the Orioles along with reliever Pedro Strop to the Cubs in July 2013. At that point of his career, Arrieta was a wildly inconsistent starter who over four years in Baltimore had failed to convince any one in the Orioles organization that he could have sustained success in the big leagues. From 2010 to 2013 in Baltimore, Arrieta had a composite 20-25 record and 5.51 ERA.
Since moving to the Cubs, Arrieta's record stands at 36-13 with a 2.26 ERA across two-and-a-half seasons.
Arrieta's 2015 dominance was based on a work ethic second to none and a belief in himself that was missing on a daily basis in Baltimore.
"Jake needed to look at himself as the quality pitcher and leader he could be," Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio said. "He always had a great body and solid stuff. The rest was mental. I asked him what he envisioned himself being here with the Cubs. I told him besides individual goals, he needed to be a great leader and teammate. He has done the work and has been that guy. All credit goes to him."
Starting June 21, Arrieta had 20 consecutive quality starts, including giving up zero runs in 11 of those outings. In the last two months of the season, Arrieta allowed just four earned runs. He also allowed the fewest hits (5.9) and home runs (0.4) per nine innings of any starter in baseball.
The balance and posture that he and Bosio worked to develop have made Arrieta a consistent sinkerball pitcher who can repeat his delivery every time.
"The work Jake puts in on his AB machine has taken his stamina to a level above most," Bosio said. "There is a reason he completes ball games and looks strong physically and mentally every time out."
In an early September game against the Cubs, Diamondbacks All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt was at the plate facing Arrieta, who struck him out with a change-up. That in itself wasn't a big deal. The thinking behind the pitch was, showing how cerebral of a pitcher Arrieta had become.
"He told me that he had not thrown a change-up in his last two starts," Cubs catcher Miguel Montero remembered. "Jake said he knew that Goldschmidt when watching tape or reading scouting reports would not have seen the change up mentioned."
Choosing between Arrieta, Greinke and Kershaw was difficult for many, as the numbers could barely be differentiated. Greinke went 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. Kershaw was 16-7 with a 2.13 ERA and 0.88 WHIP and also sported some advanced analytics that supported him slightly.
Maybe the most telling number that separated Arrieta from the two Dodger pitchers was this: Arrieta was 11-0 after Cubs losses.
Nothing says Cy Young winner more than that.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
