Do you believe Jeff Samardzija yet?

I know it's barely into May, but if he keeps this up, Jeff Samardzija may just end up being the biggest Cub revelation of 2012.
No matter who they bring up.
He allowed 3 hits and 1 run over 7 2/3 innings in last night's 3-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds, the velocity on his fastball staying around 96.
Gulp.
Yeah, he had the one bad outing so he's ranked all the way down at 39 in ERA at 3.41, .001 behind Roy Halladay.
One might be tempted to throw a compliment at Jim Hendry for his foresight in signing the wide reciever, but then one notices that Dodger Ted Lilly is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.38 while wretched backup Blake DeWitt has only gotten in a couple games and has 4 hits in his 28 at-bats.
So to be clear, no.
One loses any temptation to compliment Jim Hendry immediately.

And Bryan LaHair hits another dinger and joins the big boys at the top of the HR list. (It should be noted that while LaHair is one homer behind Lyin' Ryan Braun, LaHair has 63 at bats while Braun has 90)
And Ian Stewart got one as well.

Fabulous.

And I'm reading these crazy stories about there being a concern about the Reds' starting rotation.
Because you never read that about a Dusty Baker team, right?

Still out of town, still crazy busy, this illustration is in the current issue of Vine Line which I did last month which is why I can put up a fresh one.
You guys know my gigantic irrational inland fear and morbid fascination with sharks - I have a google alert for shark attacks, and they happen literally all the time.
Okay so that's something else, but I do wish that they'd really put these "shark sighting" signs up around Wrigley Field when Samardzija is pitching.

Lastly, to follow the Roger Clemens trial, follow Jim Baumbach!
Yesterday it looked like Roger's D scored a safety by getting Andy Pettitte to admit he may have misunderstood Clemens when he thought Clemens said he'd done HGH.
I believe the correct word is "misremembered".
Unreal.

 

Comments

[Cubs_Stats]

I wrote this about a month ago: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/jeff-samardzija-stats/

In short: There's almost NO reason to doubt Samardzija is for real right now.

Also: The fact that LaHair spent two years in Triple-A when the Cubs needed a first baseman should be yet another strike against Hendry's record.

Also also: Andy Pettitte did not change his story. The press did: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/05/02/andy-pettitte-should-not-get-the-blame-if-clemens-walks/

[Bud]

Marmol - again...

It's hard to be upbeat, or even witty when your used-to-be-all-star closer is now a sure thing for an opposing 9th inning rally.

The league has figured out that they can't make contact with those nasty sliders Carlos was throwing, so they stopped swinging. Lo and behold, they found out that the umpires were not going to give him those calls when the balls were diving out of the strike zone.

So he walks more guys every year now. Now we have a crisis. And now we see how Epstein and Sveum handle a superstar in crisis mode.

This is bad...

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

STATS!
Hows it going, man.
Other than Marmol, I mean.
That's incredibly interesting about Pettitte, and I didn't hear the next round of questioning (I think they get to ask more questions to clarify, but I don't know).
And Samardzija!
Really awesome.

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

That was awful, and imagine being Demp?
Yep, bad.
But if they can put Wood in "less stressful" situations, they can sure to it with Marmol.
Set up time!

[Rich Beckman]

Samardzija is indeed a revelation! It is really cool to see a guy finally figure it out and justify the money he has been paid!

So the Cubs seem to have four solid starters!

I anticipated this season to be one of watching the future develop. I feel like that is what we are seeing. In just 28 games the team has improved a lot!

134 games of improvement to go!