Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta is pretty sick of people questioning his performance. Arrieta is well-aware that his transformation from borderline starter to one of the best pitchers in the game invites suspicion, but told USA Today's Bob Nightengale "people are idiots" for thinking he's used performance-enhancing drugs.
We live in an age where any over-worldly achievement on a baseball field brings questions, so there were sure to be doubters even after Arrieta's stringent denial. One of those doubters happened to be ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
During a "First Take" segment, Smith said it was fair to wonder "what the hell is going on" with Arrieta's numbers. Smith later tweeted out a link to that segment, saying Arrieta shouldn't be laughing at his critics.
 | @stephenasmith | ||||
Jake Arrieta shouldn't be laughing about questions surrounding his performance. espn.go.com/video/clip?id=…
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Because this is the Internet, and Smith is a big-time sports personality, Arrieta found out about the video and issued an appropriate response to Smith.
 | @JArrieta34 | |
Laughing is exactly what I will do. You continue to do your thing though. No one will undercut my hard work. @stephenasmith
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Upon seeing Arrieta's response, Smith immediately backed down.
| @stephenasmith | |
I hear ya @JArrieta34. It's your life/career. You've earned the right to do what you want. The best to you.
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The whole exchange on Smith's end isn't all that surprising considering his role at ESPN. "First Take" routinely embraces debate, and that leads to some fiery takes. Smith and Skip Bayless get huge ratings for making bold proclamations or not so subtly suggesting a star baseball player might be taking steroids.
This was peak Stephen A. Smith too. In the clip, he says "I'm not going to accuse you of using performance-enhancing supplements, drugs, whatever you want to call it, but..."
That "but" pretty much invalidates everything that came before it. Because at that point, Smith has already planted the seeds of doubt in the viewers' minds. Smith gets to pretty much say "this guy might be using steroids" while also being able to hide behind the "I never accused him" defense. Technically, he's right, and that's why he's so successful at what he does. He manipulates words well.
Smith's arguments revolving around innings pitched and wins is incredibly silly too. Arrieta didn't accumulate innings in the majors back then because he wasn't good. Teams aren't just going to throw those guys out there. He needed to change his game and improve. Once he did so with the Cubs, his innings limits and win totals jumped.
Smith's arguments revolving around innings pitched and wins is incredibly silly too. Arrieta didn't accumulate innings in the majors back then because he wasn't good. Teams aren't just going to throw those guys out there. He needed to change his game and improve. Once he did so with the Cubs, his innings limits and win totals jumped.
Our own Jeff Passan wrote about how Arrieta made that turn around. A number of pieces have been writeen about the subject, many of which include Arrieta finally being able to throw his cutter again. There are legimate reasons to buy Arrieta's transformation. If you want to bring realistic doubt on Arrieta's numbers, there are much better ways to make that argument that don't include innings pitched or win totals.
Arrieta's response does come as somewhat of a surprise. You rarely see a player engage with a big media personality on Twitter, and that's especially the case when the issue of PEDs comes up. It's such a serious accusation in the baseball world that most players choose to say nothing any time the subject comes up. If you're a player and you make even the slightest slip-up with your wording during a denial, people will just continue to scrutinize. It's just not worth it for most guys.
Arrieta didn't adhere to that. He went directly at Smith, and that was pretty refreshing. We probably should have seen this coming, particularly after Arrieta responded to a Pittsburgh Pirates fan prior to his Wild Card start during the 2015 season.
That attitude probably feeds into why Arrieta has been so successful in recent years. He doesn't lack for confidence, and it's pretty clear he's a relentless competitor.
The fact that Smith can essentially make the accusation and then step away without repercussion is incredibly unfair. Ultimately, it's Arrieta who will have to deal with the fallout from Smith's irresponsible words. He chose to handle that by going directly to the source, and the source immediately backed off.
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