Cubs’ Jake Arrieta relishes reunion with Olympics teammate Brett Anderson

Jake Arrieta was amused that he’s been reunited with 2008 U.S. Olympic teammates Brian Duensing, Trevor Cahill and Dexter Fowler since joining the Cubs.

And the latest addition is Brett Anderson, who was named Thursday as the Cubs’ fourth starter.

“He’s very cerebral, a very smart pitcher,” Arrieta said. “He’s like (Kyle) Hendricks from the left side. He knows how to manipulate the ball, spins it well. He’s a quiet guy, but you know he’s well prepared and the guy who is open to talk about pitching or anything. Somebody might feel they can learn from him.

“Watching from afar, you can pick out quite a bit of questions to go with. Why he goes about this and that and how he goes about doing it. he’s good at mixing and locating (pitches), things that are very important for all of us.”

Arrieta nearly pitched for Anderson’s father Frank, now the pitching coach at the University of Houston. Arrieta signed a letter of intent to attend Oklahoma State, where Frank Anderson was the head coach, in the fall of 2004.

But Arrieta felt he was neither ready to start playing professional baseball or Division I ball, so he attended a junior college for more seasoning before playing at Texas Christian for two years before signing with the Baltimore Orioles in 2007.

“His father is a very smart baseball guy,” Arrieta said.

http://embed.sendtonews.com/player2/embedcode.php?fk=1K5jh214&cid=4591