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Samardzija brings the heat to Double-A Cubs
Jeff Samardzija would like to set the record straight.
The Valparaiso native and rookie pitching phenom is not anti-media, despite rarely giving print interviews with the Single-A Daytona Cubs or Double-A Tennessee Smokies.
That 3-8 record and 4.95 ERA in Florida did nothing to scar his psyche or make him regret not entering the NFL draft out of Notre Dame.
"Jeff has got tremendous stuff and that's why we're so high on him. You see him throw pitches and you go WOW!" Daytona manager Jody Davis said. "Then he makes mistakes that all kids are gonna make, but he doesn't get down about it.
"We see a great future for him."
The Jeff Samardzija Show is now playing to rave reviews in Sevierville, Tenn.
If he were any more focused, he'd be in a trance.
"Obviously, you want to win every time you're out there. But, again, you're in the minors for a reason. There's still a lot I have to learn," Jeff Samardzija told The Times during a phone interview earlier this week. "You take it game by game and that's what I'm doing.
"A couple of bad breaks here and there, and like any baseball season, numbers can be pretty fickle."
Throw out a six-run loss and a game or two in which the team couldn't hit off a tee, and his pitching line can seem a bit skewed. That was the story in Daytona.
"I'm trying to move along as fast as I can," Jeff Samardzija said. "The last three, four or five times out while I was down in Daytona, I threw the ball real well -- and hence, they brought me up here to Tennessee."
Monday night, "Shark" won his Tennessee debut against the visiting Montgomery Biscuits, 6-2, while many of the 4,000 fans at Smokies Park wore Notre Dame blue and gold Jeff Samardzija jerseys and cheered his every pitch.
The hard-throwing righty worked six innings, kept the pitch count low, scattered six hits and left the game pumping his fist to a standing ovation.
Jeff Samardzija's confidence has never waned and starring at Notre Dame, where he earned All-America honors as a wide receiver, no doubt helped. That, and having a whip-cracking coach like Charlie Weis.
"All eyes are on you. Everybody's watching Notre Dame. Everybody's watching the Cubs. It kinda goes hand in hand," Jeff Samardzija said.
As for avoiding the media, that's nonsense, he added.
"It's real tough to get a hold of the players because each minor league team doesn't have a set media staff," Jeff Samardzija said. "Down in Daytona, for a while, we had an intern and I didn't even know who she was. It's not like at Notre Dame, where there's 3-4-5 people strictly for that reason.
"I've never declined interviews, especially back home. It's just a matter of matching up. Times are different. In baseball, you don't wake up until noon time, then you go to the park at 2 or 3 and you're there all day until 10."
Jeff Samardzija continues working on consistency with his slider and changeup in key situations. His fastball already is in the mid-90s.
Davis was a frontline catcher for the Cubs from 1981 to 1988 and has seen his share of great arms. He expects Jeff Samardzija to be a permanent fixture on the North Side before long.
"His mental makeup is a tremendous plus for him," Davis said. "He's battled through some hard times and stayed positive. I don't know if anybody else could've done it. The whole picture, physical and mental, is what we like about him.
"We know we got something here."
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