Jake Arrieta: 2015 Most Valuable Fantasy Pitcher
By Bill Pivetz
When looking for value, you tend to see the biggest risk-reward players taken in the middle to late rounds, someone to keep your ratio stats at a reasonable level. If you take one of the top-20 starting pitchers, you know what to expect out of them. However, there is one pitcher that blew that theory out of the water, and his name is Jake Arrieta.
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Arrieta wasn’t an early in his career like we saw this year. In his five previous seasons with the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago Cubs, Arrieta had a 4.48 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 2.15:1 K:BB ratio over 566.1 innings. He also had a 34-32 win-loss record. I have no idea what changed between last year and this year, but his fantasy owners sure enjoyed it.
In 229 innings, Jake Arrieta won 22 games with a 1.77 ERA, 0.87 WHIP and a 4.92:1 K:BB ratio. He finished first in HR/9 (0.39), third in BABIP (.246), and fourth in GB/FB rate (2.47). He was arguably the best pitcher in the league this season and is in legitimate consideration for the NL Cy Young award, and his second-half stats definitely help his case.
From July 2 to Oct. 2, Arrieta pitched 131 innings with a 0.89 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and 5.32:1 K:BB ratio. He won 15 games and lost just one in 18 starts, and all 18 of them were quality starts. He pitched three complete games, two of which were shutouts.
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Jake Arrieta was drafted as a No. 2 or 3 starting pitcher in most leagues. He had an ADP of 102.4 in ESPN leagues, 11th round, as the 27th starting pitcher and 102nd overall. That kind of production is something you don’t see very often from an 11th-round pick, especially from a Cubs player.
His 22 wins are the most by a Cubs starting pitcher since Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly both won 17 games in 2008, the last time the team made the playoffs.
Arrieta finished the season as the No. 1 pitcher on the ESPN Player Rater. He finished ahead of both Los Angeles Dodgers aces, Max Scherzer, and Dallas Keuchel, who was in consideration for this award as well.
While I have no idea what Jake Arrieta will do in 2016, all I know is that he was the most valuable fantasy pitcher in 2015.