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Posted at 10:30 AM EST. 

COLORADO -1½ +190 over San Diego

3:10 PM EST. On May 12, the Rockies fell to the Padres 3-0, having been two-hit by Joe Musgrove. The loss, their fifth straight, dropped the team to 14 games below .500. After a travel day, the team fired off four consecutive wins, only to proceed to lose five in a row after that. The roller coaster was on its way.

On June 13, the Rocks lost to the Reds and found themselves 16 games under .500. They then won five straight. By June 27, they were back to 16 below. On July 29 they faced Joe Musgrove at Petco and again got beaten 3-0, leaving them at 44-59, 15 games under .500. And on Sunday, the Rockies lost the rubber match to the Giants and fell to 14 games below. It’s not really surprising that Colorado has taken such a hectic approach to playing .500 ball since mid-May. Emotionally, the team has been a train wreck; after an offseason dominated by the Nolan Arenado trade, and the distinct lack of soul-searching that the team seemed to engage in its wake, the trade deadline was dominated by the team’s inability to find a buyer for the talented and imprisoned Trevor Story.

Always a volatile team when it comes to travel, the Rockies are 40-21 at home, a .650 winning percentage better than the record of any team in baseball and today they’re a pooch to Jake Arrieta (RHP - SD)? How can that be?

Over the course of 11 seasons and more than 1500 career innings pitched, Jake Arrieta has been everything from one of the best pitchers in baseball’s history to significantly worse than a random Triple-A thrower. His latest chapter ended with a thud when the Cubs released him about a week ago following an unsuccessful stint with the Phillies and an attempted rescue in Chicago. The Friars are so desperate for pitching that they’re giving him a chance and we cannot see this ending well. If the Cubs were going to keep losing games, might as well lose them with some starters they can test out and not this stiff. Arrita’s last four games as a Cub resulted in a 10.80 ERA to go along with a 5.5% swing & miss rate, not to mention a 2.50 WHIP. Dude is a human traffic jam. 

This year has been absolutely putrid, not just by comparison to the best years of Arrieta’s career, but by any standard. With an ERA close to seven over a full 20 starts, the Cubs’ attempted revitalization has failed completely. This is not even a Single-A worthy pitcher anymore and today he’s priced like he’s a #3 or 4 starter at the league’s toughest venue that wreaks havoc on pitchers like Jake Arrieta.

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