Carlos Silva has been bumped from his scheduled start tomorrow in St. Louis because of the dreaded “right elbow strain.” So who ya gonna call?
Jeff Samardzija.
“It sounds good. I’m ready to go and my arm feels good. I’ll just get out there and just really attack,” said Samardzija, who has not thrown in a game since being called up last Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s anything to change or anything to look at.”
Samardzija made two starts last season with the Cubs among the 20 games in which he appeared, and he gave up 10 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings in those games. He has been looking forward to getting another chance.
“It’s definitely been something that’s been on my mind for a long time,” he said. “They use the term, ‘You get hungry,’ or whatever, whatever you want to say. When you spend the whole year down there in Triple-A, this is definitely something you look forward to and get excited about, for sure.” cubs.com.
Obviously the hope is that nothing is wrong with Silva, but getting extra looks at potential 2011 rotation candidates at this point is not a bad thing. We’ll get our first look at Samardzija’s new cutter and supposedly improved control against a very good lineup.