I watched yesterday's game closely as Jeff Samardzija continued to make a bid for the 5th starter spot in the rotation.
He has come a long way in the last year.
I made mention before that in the two starts he had at the end of the season last year, he modified his pitching motion and that he looked much less like a javelin thrower up there and more like a pitcher.
And he has improved upon that since the end of last season.
The numbers haven't worked out quite yet...so far this spring he is 0-2 with an ERA near 7.00 (that doesn't include a start he had last week against some over-matched minor leaguers.)
What should the Cubs do with him? Well, if it wasn't for the contract, I'd immediately say he should spend some time at Iowa this year and continue to work on being a starting pitcher.
His contract will probably make the Cubs do otherwise. And that probably means he's headed to the bullpen again. I really hate this because the Cubs have kept moving him back and forth his whole career. Samardzija is still learning how to pitch and it would do him more good to have a more consistent approach to his development.
Other reason Spellcheck isn't likely to start the year in Iowa? Well, because the Cubs are severely shorthanded right now in the bullpen. The truth is, the Cubs need Samardzija to help setup Carlos Marmol. Samardzija has thrown in the upper 90's with his fastball as a reliever in the past. A kid with that ability could really be a shutdown setup man in the big leagues. I don't see him being much more than a 3rd or 4th starter in the major leagues
But back to the point, Samardzija is vastly improved. I'm very happy to see that he is making significant progress.
But, to me, it isn't enough for him to get a starting job on this team yet.
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After Samardzija left the game yesterday, I switched over to the Red and Rockies game to watch Aroldis Chapman pitch. I've seen him pitch a bit earlier in the season, and he has the stuff to be absolutely dominant.
In his first inning, he was again dominant yesterday.
The second inning...not so much.
Some very interesting points about this kid:
He has a very slow delivery to the plate. Even though he is a left handed pitcher, he is very easy to steal against right now. I looks as if the Reds are trying to work on this.
He has some serious issues right now when he's pitching from the stretch. He's working on muting his high leg kick, but has some work to do there. Hopefully the Reds have more success with this than the Marlins and Tigers did when they tried to reduce Dontrelle Willis's leg kick.
His best pitch isn't his fastball...it's his change up. It is quite an amazing pitch...where his fast ball is 95 -98, his change up is 79 mph with almost the exact arm motion and speed. That's impressive and is going to have players swinging out of their shoes.
One last note on Chapman...he hurt his back and he wasn't able to finish his outing yesterday.
Did Dusty break his new toy already?
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Today?
Ryan Dempster will start against the Royals in Surprise. Ramirez might be back in the lineup today as the DH. The Royals telecast will be available on MLB.tv (and I think the game is going to be broadcast on MLB Network today too). The game should also be available on mlb.com audio and Gameday audio.
