Re: Jeff Samardzija is (or was) pretty awesome

[El Duderino]

@CSNMooney

 

Samardzija's place in the new-look #Cubs clubhouse: “I’m a young guy, but I’m old. Old soul, I believe it’s called.”

[Hairyducked Idiot]

was that a "Theo" quote?

 

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

[Tracer Bullet]

was that a "Theo" quote?

 

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

 

Plus your opinion changes with a light breeze

[Hairyducked Idiot]

was that a "Theo" quote?

 

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

 

Plus your opinion changes with a light breeze

 

Which is how it should be. Baseball is too complicated and too fluid to not have ever-changing opinions.

[jersey cubs fan]

was that a "Theo" quote?

 

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

 

Plus your opinion changes with a light breeze

 

Which is how it should be. Baseball is too complicated and too fluid to not have ever-changing opinions.

 

That's football. Baseball is neither complicated nor fluid.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

was that a "Theo" quote?

 

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

 

Plus your opinion changes with a light breeze

 

Which is how it should be. Baseball is too complicated and too fluid to not have ever-changing opinions.

 

That's football. Baseball is neither complicated nor fluid.

 

I agree.

[Guest]

lol

[davell]

2.8 fWAR right now. Not too shabby.

[woodchip2153]

Fangraph's take on him as a starter and more specifically his splitfinger fastball

[Tracer Bullet]

Interesting article though incomplete. Did he throw the splitter more or less during his down swing? Did the splitter, in particular, lose effectiveness during that stretch? Did he throw other pitches during that time or throw some pitches with more frequency? How effective were those other pitches (i.e., do they explain some of his ineffectiveness)?

 

Oh and "battled struggles with tiredness" is a brutal phrase.

 

Love a good splange up though.

[Guest]

Interesting article though incomplete. Did he throw the splitter more or less during his down swing? Did the splitter, in particular, lose effectiveness during that stretch? Did he throw other pitches during that time or throw some pitches with more frequency? How effective were those other pitches (i.e., do they explain some of his ineffectiveness)?

 

Oh and "battled struggles with tiredness" is a brutal phrase.

 

Love a good splange up though.

 

Wasn't it reported that he was experimenting with a curveball for that entire month or so?

[Tracer Bullet]

Interesting article though incomplete. Did he throw the splitter more or less during his down swing? Did the splitter, in particular, lose effectiveness during that stretch? Did he throw other pitches during that time or throw some pitches with more frequency? How effective were those other pitches (i.e., do they explain some of his ineffectiveness)?

 

Oh and "battled struggles with tiredness" is a brutal phrase.

 

Love a good splange up though.

 

Wasn't it reported that he was experimenting with a curveball for that entire month or so?

 

Which was what I was getting at and what makes the lack of mention of that other pitch glaring.

[Vinestal]

Interesting article though incomplete. Did he throw the splitter more or less during his down swing? Did the splitter, in particular, lose effectiveness during that stretch? Did he throw other pitches during that time or throw some pitches with more frequency? How effective were those other pitches (i.e., do they explain some of his ineffectiveness)?

 

Oh and "battled struggles with tiredness" is a brutal phrase.

 

Love a good splange up though.

 

Wasn't it reported that he was experimenting with a curveball for that entire month or so?

 

Which was what I was getting at and what makes the lack of mention of that other pitch glaring.

I swear I've seen him throw curves recently (in the game against Atlanta, I didnt see the game last night). Unless the split has 12 to 6 massive loopy droping movement. if that's his split I've never seen one that moved that much.

[Guest]

some of the pitches he got strikeouts on last night were NASTY. i don't know what they were, but they just dropped out of the zone at the last second in the mid 80's.

[javy knows my name]

some of the pitches he got strikeouts on last night were NASTY. i don't know what they were, but they just dropped out of the zone at the last second in the mid 80's.

 

Splitters.

[hawkeyecub]

That sounds like me. And I'm still sort of sticking with it. It takes more than 2/3rds of a season for me to say a guy is going to be durable enough to be a starter. But I'm a lot more excited than I was.

 

Plus your opinion changes with a light breeze

 

Which is how it should be. Baseball is too complicated and too fluid to not have ever-changing opinions.

 

That's football. Baseball is neither complicated nor fluid.

 

I agree.

 

LOL

[KaiserCesar]

Interesting article though incomplete. Did he throw the splitter more or less during his down swing? Did the splitter, in particular, lose effectiveness during that stretch? Did he throw other pitches during that time or throw some pitches with more frequency? How effective were those other pitches (i.e., do they explain some of his ineffectiveness)?

 

Oh and "battled struggles with tiredness" is a brutal phrase.

 

Love a good splange up though.

 

Wasn't it reported that he was experimenting with a curveball for that entire month or so?

 

Which was what I was getting at and what makes the lack of mention of that other pitch glaring.

I swear I've seen him throw curves recently (in the game against Atlanta, I didnt see the game last night). Unless the split has 12 to 6 massive loopy droping movement. if that's his split I've never seen one that moved that much.

 

I just took a look at some of the pitch type data on fangraphs for Samardzija per start.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=3254&position=P&type=10&gds=&gde=&season=2012

 

According to this data, he thew a curveball over 5 starts, with a bunch of them coming in the 6/27 Mets game. In the 6/22 Arizona and 6/27 Mets games he barely threw his slider at all. Over these two starts, he gave up 14 runs over 9 innings. He came out the next start against Atlanta, worked in the slider and changeup a bunch more and struck out 11. It looks like neither the changeup or the curveball have been getting used lately, but whenever the curveball has been thrown, it gets crushed.

[Clem Fandango]

Yeah at this point it's been well documented he was experimenting with a new pitch during his struggles, and once he abandoned it he went back to being effective. I'm just glad that was the reason and not a lingering injury or a lightning-in-the-bottle situation.

[Guest]

10 strikeouts and 0 walks tonight. pretty good chance he's a TOR guy next year.

 

it's too bad he's a little older. he'll be 28 when next season starts.

[davell]

His arm is hell of a lot younger though.

[Cubswin11]

Is it weird at we haven't heard anything at all from the organization regarding shutting him down sometime soon, other than guesses by guys in the media? He has to have 2, 3 at most, starts left. This is by far the most innings he's ever logged.

[dew1679666265]

Is it weird at we haven't heard anything at all from the organization regarding shutting him down sometime soon, other than guesses by guys in the media? He has to have 2, 3 at most, starts left. This is by far the most innings he's ever logged.

 

Considering how little this front office says anything, it doesn't surprise me. My guess is they'll make an announcement sometime right before/after he makes his last start of the season.

[apete6]

Is it weird at we haven't heard anything at all from the organization regarding shutting him down sometime soon, other than guesses by guys in the media? He has to have 2, 3 at most, starts left. This is by far the most innings he's ever logged.

 

Considering how little this front office says anything, it doesn't surprise me. My guess is they'll make an announcement sometime right before/after he makes his last start of the season.

 

You nailed this one. They just announced that Brooks Raley will pitch today and then be shut down as he has reached his innings limit. I would imagine they do the same with Samardzija soon.

[Pushfrog98]

He looked really good last night. Hitting 97-98, locating, just some nasty stuff.

[Rob]

He looked really good last night. Hitting 97-98, locating, just some nasty stuff.

 

Yeah, shame it was his last start of the year though.

 

All in all, he struck out more than a batter an inning and (more importantly) got the walks down to just a bit better than league average.

 

He's looking like a potential #2 for next year. Maybe better, if you discount the poor month he had this year while trying to learn to throw a curve.