An Enigma Wrapped in a Riddle
Pitcher Jeff Samardzija likes to keep us guessing.
The Chicago Cubs right-hander was selected in the fifth round of the 2006 amateur draft and was actually the club’s second pick of the day due to a lack of second, third and fourth round selections (thanks to a free agent frenzy the previous winter).
Samardzija was given a significant contract to forgo a pro football career after spending his college days playing both sports at Notre Dame. At one point he was considered the top-rated wide receiver in the 2007 NFL draft.
Samardzija began his pro baseball career in 2006 in Rookie Ball and held his own, which earned him a late-season promotion to the Midwest League where he made two starts. Samardzija began 2007 in High-A ball but put up disappointing numbers with 142 hits allowed in 107.1 innings of work. He also walked 35 and struck out just 45 batters despite working in the mid- to high-90s.
The Cubs organization decided to promote Samardzija at the end of that season to Double-A where he made six starts despite the disappointing numbers in High-A ball. A funny thing happened. His numbers improved when everyone expected him to struggle. Albeit in fewer appearances, Samardzija’s H/9 ratio dropped from 11.91 to 8.65 and his K/9 increased from 3.77 to 5.24 (which was still low).
Samardzija repeated Double-A at the beginning of 2008 and again posted disappointing numbers with 71 hits allowed in 76 innings, along with 42 walks and just 44 strikeouts. The organization was aggressive with Samardzija and promoted him to Triple-A and he responded. He allowed 32 hits in 37.1 innings and walked 16 to go along with 40 strikeouts (the first time he came anywhere close to striking out a batter per nine innings).
Samardzija, 23, with a football background and mentality seems to thrive under pressure and in situations where he needs to rise to the occasion. At Triple-A with the bases empty, batters hit .275 against the pitcher. With runners in scoring position, hitters managed just a .207 average. In three recent Major League appearances, Samardzija allowed three hits and one walk in five relief innings on the biggest baseball stage in the world. He also struck out six batters.
So, yes, Samardzija’s pro numbers have been very disappointing prior to 2008, but he may have just needed a push – or shove – to rise to the occasion. I know Cubs fans, hungry for a World Series title, certainly hope this riddle has been solved.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t get too comfortable too soon.
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A pitcher who likes men on base? A pitcher who needs to be challenged?
The concept of “clutch” hitting has received a lot of virtual ink in the blogosphere, and has largely been dismissed. While the author never uses the word “clutch” above, one definition of “clutch” is “the ability to rise to a challenge” and Samardzija certainly has at each step up the ladder. So, can a pitcher be clutch?
The link (assuming the HTML works here) to his major league stats is .
Curious how he ended up with separate pages for his minor league and major league stats, and why the two pages bill him differently (Jeff Samardzija vs. Jeffrey Alan Samardzija).
Good news is the HTML worked, bad news is I don’t know shit about HTML.
Jeffrey Alan Samardzija
I wonder if he’s the fastest pitcher in MLB (sort of an odd distinction, but what the heck).
Remember reading somewhere that Bucholtz on the Sox was recruited to play wide out because of his speed too.
Rajmond, fixed the duplicate player issue, minor league stats & major league stats are now linked up.
Rick Ankiel has to be up there for fastest. But Samardzija is definitely #1. He was going in the first round of the NFL draft if he declared, so he runs a 4.5 40 time at the absolute worst.
I seem to remember Samardzija being the same way on the gridiron: A bit inconsistent, but always making plays when the chips were down – e.g., UCLA in 2006. Memory may or may not reflect reality, but I’ve never seen a study on “clutch” receiving or “clutch” pitching, so who knows, it could exist.
But still, I imagine that Jeff just needs to learn how to focus more consistently.
Maybe he’s more effective from the stretch than the windup? Young pitchers can be weird that way. (I don’t know if he even uses one or the other or both; I’ve never seen him pitch).
“Anti-clutch” surely exists. “Clutch” hitting may often be the result of anti-clutch pitching.
Anyway, if he’s fast, they can use him as a pinch runner — if Washburn can do it, anybody can. And Lou seems to enjoy running Zambrano out there as PH, so why not a pitcher as a runner? (Other than the injury risk, obviously, but the dude was a football player).