What if I told you that Jeff Samardzija holds a 10.53 K/9, 2.29 BB/9 and 2.97 xFIP? That's where Loose Lips stands after his 8.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 0 BBs, 11 Ks against the Dodgers last night. Sure, that's also a 5.03 ERA, but there's no way I'm ignoring the 3.09 SIERA, 3.63 FIP, 27.5% soft and hard contact, 60.6% LOB rate that will inch closer to 70-75%, and 6+ IPS. Alright Nick, when do we get to the part that you tell me Samardzija is bad. Never! Well, he's not that good at leat. I want you guys to keep in mind that because this was his sixth start, all of his numbers will get morphed enormously based on this outing (small sample size!) and that he held a 4.54 FIP prior to this start. He's a guy who will be super dominant like this at times, then have 4+ ER clunkers as well (half his starts thus far!). My ranking of him in the 70s is far from fair - he deserves to be in the 50s at the very least - though I don't see all of those peripherals taking massive shape and delivering us a Top 30 SP rest of the season. That's just not how Samardzija works.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
