Jake Arrieta Hit A 465-Foot Home Run Off Of Zack Greinke
Jake Arrieta’s a strong dude. We know that because he can reach back for 97 MPH on the gun when he needs to. But we also know that because he can hit 465-foot bombs. To put that in perspective, there were 5,610 home runs that were hit during the 2016 season and only 24 of them went further than Arrieta’s home run off of Zack Greinke yesterday. That would put Arrieta’s home run in the top 0.004% of the longest home runs hit last year. By the way, of those 24 homers that were longer than Arrieta’s, Giancarlo Stanton hit four of them, and the top two were his, traveling 495 and 490 feet respectively.
Over the last two years, Arrieta’s hit four homers (not counting this one), which is tied for second with Noah Syndergaard, trailing only Madison Bumgarner (8) amongst pitchers. This is a big year for Arrieta, though. He’s in the final year of team control before becoming a free agent for the first time in his career. It’s weird, because Arrieta’s ERA inflated almost a run and a half (1.33) from 2015 to 2016, yet he was still one of the best pitchers in the National League, finishing ninth for the Cy Young award. That’s just how good he was in 2015.
Entering his age-31 season this year, Arrieta’s spring has been meh at best. He’s started three games, allowed six earned runs in 10 innings, but none of that matters. He’s not a guy that’s trying to win a spot in the rotation, and he’s not a guy that needs to “build some momentum” going into the season. His spring numbers last year were almost identical to what they are this year. He’s gonna give you roughly 30 starts, right around 200 innings, punch out around 200 batters, and have an ERA that’s in the neighborhood of the league leaders. Oh, and maybe hit a bomb or two.