Minor League Spotlight is MLB FanHouse's look into baseball's minor leagues. But you probably figured that out already.Back in June, Lion in Oil brought to everyone's attention that Jeff Samardzija, former wide receiver standout at Notre Dame, was having a rough go of it in A-ball as a pitcher. (Our own Pat Lackey chimed in on that fact, too.) At the time, he had started 11 games, hadn't won a single one and was sporting a 5.40 ERA. After all that, he was promoted to Double-A. And in his short stint there so far, he's doing rather well.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Samardzija, who has been performing better for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies (2-0, 1.46 ERA) than he was at Class-A Daytona (3-8, 4.95).This just goes to prove that with prospects, it's not always the soundest idea to pass judgment too early. The Cubs guaranteed the guy a ridiculous 10 million, he hasn't focused solely on baseball perhaps ever in his life and he's still relatively young. He's got time on his side.
"I'm going to try to get up to Knoxville to see him pitch," said Tim Wilken, the Cubs' director of scouting.
Samardzija has allowed two earned runs in 12 1/3 innings in the Southern League.
"He's throwing better quality strikes," Wilken said. "He's more consistent with his delivery, his slider is improving all of the time and his changeup is coming around."
Let's give him a chance, eh people?
