Notre Dame Baseball: Five former Notre Dame players to watch in Spring Training
By Matt Clark
Known as much for his stellar career as a wide receiver with Irish football team, as his ability to blow batters away with his filthy arsenal of pitches for the Notre Dame baseball team, Jeff Samardzija, or “The Shark” as he is affectionately known as by Irish fans, enters his 12th season in the big leagues this year.
The former two-time All-American wide receiver for Notre Dame is expected to be a part of the starting rotation for the San Francisco Giants this year. After playing for Notre Dame from 2004-2006, Samardzija was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 5th round of the 2006 draft.
He would announce in January of 2007 that he would forgo the NFL Draft and instead pursue a career in baseball. Samardzija would sign a five-year $16.5 million deal with the Cubs following that decision.
Samardzija would begin his big league career on June 23, 2008, when he was brought up from the minors by the Cubs. He would play for Chicago from 2008-2014 when he was traded to the Oakland Athletics in a deal that included top prospect Addison Russell and others.
In 2014, Samardzija was named a National League All-Star with the Cubs but would be ineligible to play in the game due to the fact that he was traded to the American League just before the All-Star game.
The A’s would trade Samardzija to the Chicago White Sox in the 2014 offseason for Marcus Semien, Josh Phegley & others. He would play the entirety of the 2015 season with the White Sox before signing a 5-year deal with the San Francisco Giants worth $90 million prior to the 2016 season.
Last season with the Giants Samardzija started 32 games, pitching 181 2/3 innings while compiling a 3.52 earned run average, 1.11 WHIP, 140 strikeouts and an 11-12 record. With six pitches in his arsenal, including a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, cutter, slider, split-finger fastball, and curveball, Samardzija effectively uses the plethora of pitches at his disposal to rack up strikeouts.
Samardzija will compete with Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman this spring in hopes of being named the Opening Day starter for the Giants. At worst, he is likely to be the number two starting pitcher in the Giants rotation this season, who eats a lot of innings and posts solid strikeout numbers for the team.