Jake Arrieta and the Intentionally Unintentional Walk

By now, you’ve probably heard that in yesterday’s game against the Padres, Jake Arrieta intentionally issued an unintentional walk. Of course, he did it for the same reason spring training games are played at all; to get in some practice in game-like situations and, in this case, he didn’t mind having a speedy runner on base in Jemile Weeks.

When interviewed about his performance (video here), Jake gave a nice breakdown of how he felt during the game and what he was trying to practice. During the interview Jake spoke about a few things he felt went well yesterday, including:

• He wanted to pitch with guys on base and it was good to have a speedy guy that challenged him
• Felt he pitched from the stretch with good timing, rhythm and tempo
• Worked some breaking balls into his pitching sequences
• Was an overall good day and he felt positive about how things went

Bottom line here it that Jake has a laser-like focus going on right now. He knows what he needs to do to get ready for the season and he is going about it in a professional, well-thought-out manner.