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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Win a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CyYoung?src=hash">#CyYoung</a> Award and jump around! <a href="https://t.co/KkDVwxJT75">pic.twitter.com/KkDVwxJT75</a></p>— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) <a href="

">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote>

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"Confident" is one of the very last terms I'd use to describe Jake's time with the Orioles. He showed tremendous promise with our organization at AA/AAA. The meltdown occurred at the Major League level, and I'd attribute a great deal of that to being mentally overwhelmed by both himself and the opposition. Moving to a league with a noticeably lower level of hitting talent and an automatic out for 11% of the opposing batting order was exactly what he needed to return to the place he was mentally for his success in the upper minors. If Jake would have ended up with say Boston instead of the Cubs, I think this story turns out much uglier. I have a lot of complaints about some of the Orioles' player development decisions, particularly on the pitching side, but Jake Arrieta is not a topic where they should be blamed.

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I'm so close to being good and everyone knows it.

Many found this quote a little irritating at the time (including myself) but it turns out he was right. Hat's off to him for a dominant season and winning the Cy Young.

As for us, it just seems were not good at developing pitchers. We've had bad luck too, but there's no question the Orioles player development needs work.

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The Cubs let Jake use his natural throwing motion, and changed up his pitch usage. He wasn't allowed to throw across his body or throw from the 3B side of the rubber as an Oriole and those changes made him uncomfortable. The Cubs, more than most, also don't care that much about time to plate which is another thing Jake struggled with in Baltimore.

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"Confident" is one of the very last terms I'd use to describe Jake's time with the Orioles. He showed tremendous promise with our organization at AA/AAA. The meltdown occurred at the Major League level, and I'd attribute a great deal of that to being mentally overwhelmed by both himself and the opposition. Moving to a league with a noticeably lower level of hitting talent and an automatic out for 11% of the opposing batting order was exactly what he needed to return to the place he was mentally for his success in the upper minors. If Jake would have ended up with say Boston instead of the Cubs, I think this story turns out much uglier. I have a lot of complaints about some of the Orioles' player development decisions, particularly on the pitching side, but Jake Arrieta is not a topic where they should be blamed.

That's disingenuous as hell! Jake was a lot better than the diff of the AL and facing a pitcher (and a #8 NL hitter...) every nine batters.

We messed with his delivery and his TTTP. Theo and Chicago let him do what he already knew how to do.

Jake stepped up.

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IIRC, the Orioles tried to "fix" him throwing across his body and some other things. The Cubs just let him do his thing.

Not the first time either we've heard pitchers leave here and say something similar.

My biggest gripe in the whole organization. Pitching development and philosophy.

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I always liked Jake Arrieta. I thought he was a confident, maybe cocky, raw talent who knew he could pitch in the big leagues but didn't quite put it all together for the Birds.

I would NEVER root against a former Oriole as long as he wasn't in our division or played for the Yankees or Red SOX.

I am sincerely happy for the guy. He had a historic second half of 2015 and when he was on, which was mostly late in the season I think he was the very best pitcher in the game.

One thing though.

I want to know what key unlocked that talent.I want to know why multiple Oriole pitching coaches couldn't refine or helped define his ability and maybe more troubling is this fact.

The Orioles rarely turn projects into masterpieces.

You could maybe point to Miguel Gonzales but he is hardly a 5 star pitcher.I was reasonably pleased with what they did in simplifying Ubaldo in the first half of last year and made him a decent pitcher for us?too bad he didn't repeat it in the second half.

My beef is that the Orioles seem to either underestimate what they do have or waste their time trying to reclaim someone who is largely done or on his last chance. Jurrgens, Eaton, Garcia, Millwood, Feldman, Trachsel?on and on it goes. We let Alfredo Simon go and he becomes an all star, Jake, is another example. Just once Id like to see us take a project and make him a #1 or #2. Congratulations Jake. You earned it.I just wish it had been for us.

I found this, which might help explain our incompetence on the issue a bit:

"In 2014, Harry Pavlidis detailed Arrieta?s transformation for Baseball Prospectus. His pitches began hitting the strike zone more often ? especially in parts of the zone that hitters couldn?t touch with any authority. So, why the improvement? Pavlidis shot a few videos of Arrieta throwing under the watchful eye of Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio. You can see Bosio working with Arrieta on his balance, particularly as he breaks his hands apart and starts to shift forward in his delivery. And in an MLB Network Radio interview from the same year, Arrieta talked about making sure that his shoulders were level, he wasn?t leaning back toward second base in his windup, and his left leg was moving down before he started shifting his weight toward home plate ? all elements he worked on with Bosio.

Those subtle changes have paid off in a big way. In 2014, Arrieta grew into one of the best pitchers in the league, posting a strikeout-to-walk rate of better than 4-to-1 and allowing a ludicrously low five homers in 156.2 innings. Hitters couldn?t do anything with his slider (.191 batting average, .274 slugging) or his curve (.152/.229) that year."

Take from a larger article: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-playoffs-jake-arrieta-dominance-chicago-cubs/

This suggests to me that the pitching development coaching staff was and might still be a bit incompetence. Maybe the nicer way would be to say that the Cubs simply have a superior pitching coaching staff comparatively. I guess you guys decide. Our constant lack of suggest in this department suggests to me that it's us and not them.

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Arrieta having such a great season is somewhat disturbing. I am happy for Jake and don't blame him for anything. But damn.

One of the elements that a good GM should have is to be able to identify extreme talent and keep it on the team long term. If Dan does not have that ability then Arrieta may be just the first to have great success after leaving the O's. Ed Rod, Hader, Trapley, etc.

I give a lot of credit to Dan for the O's winning as many games over the last 4 years as any other AL team. But the ultimate goal is to win the World Series. Pitching is the main element that makes that happen. And great pitching makes it more likely.

I know in trade you have to give something to get something. But I guess Andy MacPhail spoiled me. He showed that he could get talent and give away lesser talent. It doesn't hurt so much to give away Uehara when Davis is the player you get in return.

Dan has some very good qualities. Good judgement on the players he gives in trades does not seem like one of them. Its a shame.

I

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