Light A Fire Under Their Asses, Jake
What an absolutely disastrous weekend. 1 run. 1 goddamn run the entire weekend, and it came at the hands of a Jake Arietta home run. Jake was clearly frustrated this weekend and voiced his concerns as he is allowed to do.
Jake Arrieta was pissed. Said Phillies need to show accountability. Blasted team’s infield shifts. “Overall, a horseshit series,” he said.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 3, 2018
It's only fair to include Arrieta's full answers. Here is a portion of his interview: pic.twitter.com/UY3JoyG37M
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 4, 2018
This ruffled some feathers around Phillies twitter, but my take is that you are 999.99% correct, Jake. Aside from calling out Kingery, who you know is a rookie and playing out of position, you couldn’t be more spot on about the Defensive Alignments.
Arrieta, by the way, isn’t wrong. pic.twitter.com/MnNnDWjkbf
— BWanksCB (@BWCrossingBroad) June 3, 2018
Now for all you assholes on twitter who is saying this isn’t leadership, let me remind you of something. Who on this roster has a World Series ring on this team? Any former Cy Youngs? Have we shown one semblance of a clubhouse leader up until this quote by Jake yesterday? So what the fuck is the argument here. He cleared the air, he spoke his mind, but most importantly he was fucking HEATED that in 29 innings, his home run was the only run scored in a season series. That is deplorable and Gabe, the problem needs to be addressed.
First and foremost, the Phillies refuse to take advantage of Runners in Scoring Position. Since May 24th, they are hitting a collective .191 in that situation. I’ll help you out here Jake and call some more Phillies out for you….
Maikel Franco
Nick Williams
Jorge Alfaro
They are hitting a combined .201 with RISP and an OPS of .608 on the season. These are starting position players who day after day are not taking advantage of key situations in a game.
Odubel Herrera
Since May 19th his OPS is .405 with only one walk. In those 14 days, he has been ahead in the count just 22 times! So in 1-0, 2-1, 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 counts over the last 14 days he is hitting .143. He has seen his average dip 48 points over that time frame.
Hector Neris
Gladly, because you are dead to me. 1.61 WHIP, 5.24 ERA and has given up a run in 4 straight appearances.
I’m with you, Jake and I’m not afraid call out the whole damn team if we have to because I’m a virgin, nerd who hides behind his computer screen. Gabe, I talking about you, Hitting Coach, John Mallee who has proven nothing to me, and let’s even yell at Maikel Franco some more because he just aggravates me as a baseball player.
This team is now 3 GB after getting swept in San Francisco. They are not clicking on any level and the Starting Pitchers can’t carry the weight the entire season. The stress of those 6th and 7th innings, when there are 1 or 0 runs of run support showing on the scoreboard, is going to start to wear down these guys in the dog days of the summer.
So thank you, Jake for stepping up a being a leader last night. Show these kids what it means to get in line and show them how winning is done. This team needs a clubhouse leader and you are the man for the job.
Go Phils.