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Samardzija may not be gone long
Former Notre Dame football star Jeff Samardzija's departure from the Cubs clubhouse Tuesday might not last long if the blossoming professional pitcher stays on the track the Cubs think he's on.
"That's up to him,'' manager Lou Piniella said after Samardzija was optioned to Class AA Tennessee after pitching in just two games for the Cubs this spring, "and whether we need help or don't. He's certainly one of the kids down there that has a chance. We brought up five players last year from our AA club, so if you're pitching well, and we need help, we'll go get the person the organization feels can help us the most.''
For now, Samardzija wasn't going to have a chance to make the Opening Day roster, and with starters going deeper into games wasn't going to get much chance to pitch if he stayed in big-league camp. He'll use the next three weeks to stretch out to open the season in Tennessee's starting rotation.
"But he impressed in camp,'' Piniella said. "His hair got shorter, too, as camp went on. I told him by August he'd be in a crew cut.''
Samardzija's first impression on Piniella last spring resulted in orders to trim his flowing locks.
This time around, the impressions were all about the transition the tall right-hander has made from thrower to pitcher.
"Last year he threw hard and overpowered hitters here in camp,'' Piniella said. "This year he pitched more, with a little better sinker, a little tighter slider. He worked on a changeup and he's starting to develop a split-finger, which he didn't use in games -- but at the same time that he's getting better with. He looks more like a professional pitcher.''
Samardzija, who made the jump from high-A to AA late last season, said much of that transformation came between the rough spots in the middle of last season toward the end of the year.
"I can think about it right now and name off a handful of things that were the difference,'' he said of his development, "and it's carried over even to today.''
The rough stretch came when the post-Sugar Bowl high wore off six or eight weeks into the season -- after riding the wave from football into big-league spring training and into the high-A season in Daytona.
But despite a humbling mid-season experience, which included a stint in the bullpen, Jeff Samardzija says he couldn't have scripted that season any better.
"I started getting more confident with all my pitches and knowing when to use them,'' he said of his return to the rotation. "And I thought the way I ended the season the last seven or eight starts was probably how I would write it up, and if I had been pitching like that the whole season I probably would have been a 12-13-14-game winner, which would have been exciting.
"You take the good with the bad, and you're almost happy it worked out the way it did, just because what I learned from the first part of the season was a lot.''
And since then, he had his first real offseason between baseball seasons -- another boost into this year, he said.
Which makes a day like Tuesday a beginning, not an ending for Samardzija. It's the start of what many feel is a ride that will lead back to the big leagues.
"The thing is I know what I need to do when it comes to pitching,'' he said. "And all I can do is to be ready for it if that call comes."
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