Jeff Samardzija May Move Into the Rotation and Other Terrifying Bullets – April 13, 2011

In a way, it was good that the Cubs were facing a guy who always dominates them last night in Brett Myers. They were indeed dominated, but even if they’d had a solid offensive performance, they would have lost anyway. So why waste the good offense, right? Boom – bright sided!

  • But it ain’t all sunshine and roses. The early possibility to get the next fifth starter’s spot start in the cavalcade of disasters? Jeff Samardzija. Of his performance – wherein he threw three innings and gave up three hits, a walk, and two earned runs – Mike Quade was effusive in his praise: “I thought (Samardzija) threw as well as we’ve seen. We needed those innings badly. I tip my hat to him.” Be afraid. Be very afraid.
  • Not filling in as the fifth starter? Newly-signed Doug Davis, whom GM Jim Hendry does not expect to be ML-ready until the end of May.
  • The Cubs are starting to give serious thought to Darwin Barney as the full-time starter at second base, despite Jeff Baker’s dominance of lefties, and overall hot start. ‘‘It’s just a brief snapshot,’’ said Quade, who admitted envisioning [Castro and Barney starting full-time up the middle] watching the big tandem game by the pair Monday. ‘‘There’s a lot of baseball to play. But both of them are off to really good starts. They play with enthusiasm. Both of them are getting smarter every day. They fit real well together.’’ Barney, for all his defensive prowess, has a career .708 OPS. In the minor leagues.
  • 2010 first round pick Hayden Simpson wasn’t quite as good in his second start of the season, giving up five runs (three earned) in five innings last night. His fastball, which the Cubs bought at 95-96 mph, was sitting at just 91-92. Hopefully it’s just a matter of him having not pitched in games for so long, and it being April.
  •  

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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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