Samardzjia down, Chad Fox up
Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry made a roster move sending former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzjia back to AAA Iowa and calling up tired old veteran Chad Fox to plug a middle relief hole in the bullpen.
When I first heard the report, I thought they called up farmhand Jake Fox who is crushing the ball in AAA but apparently has no position on the field. Jake is on fire: .393 average, .910 slugging, 12 HRs, 24 runs scored. Too bad the guy apparently has no leather. I thought maybe they were calling him up to showcase him for a trade to an AL team. But nope, it was Chad Fox getting the call. The same Chad Fox who has pitched exactly 11 1/3 Major League innings over the past four seasons, giving up EIGHT earned runs.
Jeff Samardzjia delivers at Wrigley
Samardzjia has seen mostly mop up relief duty this year even though when spring training broke, all reports were that he was being stretched out as a starter. So what gives here? They give him a few weeks as a starter, then bring him up for middle relief, now send him back to start. Had they left him alone, he might have been called up for the first time this year tomorrow where another roster move will have to be made to fill a void in the rotation left by Carlos Zambrano (DL, hamstring). But Smaradzjia isn’t available for that because he’s been rusting in the bullpen for the past month or so. Seems like the Cubs Front Office is lacking in the planning and contingency department this year, which in my view is uncharacteristic for the Hendry regime.
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May 7, 2009
Tags: Chad Fox, Jake Fox, Jeff Samardzjia Posted in: Hot Stove, Jim Hendry, players, roster
Stumble It!
2 Responses
yeah, why are they messing with the Kid from notre dame? LET HIM MATURE IN TRIPLE-A!!!
It’s not issue of “having no leather”. He has not had an error this year @ Iowa and if you check his stats you will see he is a good fielder. Baseball America has given the guy an undeserved and bum wrap about his fielding.
If you want to know why he has not been called up when you have multiple people, and highly paid at that, below the Mendoza line is a good question for Hendry and Flieta.
Remember to tell Gathright, you can’t steal first base.
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