True to Character

I wasn’t wild about the White Sox acquiring starter Jeff Samardzija from Oakland in the 2014 offseason.  He cost us two good young players, Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien (27 homers and 75 rbi’s this year), and was going into his free-agent season, to boot.  And what did Mr. ex-Cub do for us in 2015?  Well, he went 11-13 with a 4.96 ERA.  Those stats earned Samardzija a five-year, $90 million contract with the Giants.  Playing for Bruce Bochy, who has Dave Righetti for pitching coach, improved Samardzija’s record to 12-11 with a 3.81 ERA.  No great loss on either side of Chicago.

Only Samardzija returned to Wrigley Field last night to face the Cubs in game two of the NLDS.  He managed all of two innings, giving up four earned runs on six hits and a walk; that really makes the SF front office look smart.  TV analyst and former pitcher John Smoltz kept saying Samardzija needed to throw something other than his fastball to keep the batters off balance.  Wrong, John.  Jeff doesn’t need to do anything he doesn’t want to; never has and never will.  A steady diet of fastballs to Cub hitters it was, and now Chicago stands 2-0 in the series.

But there is a silver lining for Sox fans in this Cubs’ postseason.  The Sox made a qualifying offer to Samardzija, which he turned down for that $90 million.  Not only are the Giants saddled with said contract and player, they had to give us their first-round draft choice in return.  Miracle of miracles, we drafted pitcher Zack Burdi, who played in the same suburban high school conference as Clare, and he looks to be really good.  Burdi went from rookie ball, A and AA to AAA in the 2-1/2 months from the time he was drafted.  So, thank you, Jeff.