At the end of the 2015 season the San Francisco Giants looked to expand their thinning rotation with hopefully would be some timely free agent signings. Going forward many fans and analysts looked towards some great players that would be hitting the free agent market and the Giants above all hoped to grab them. Some of the big names hitting the market were pitchers Zack Grienke and David Price, both players who teams wanted to desperately grab up.

Grienke had just finished his arguably best season yet with a career low ERA of 1.66 and the highest win percentage of his career with .864 with a record of 19-3. Price who had just finished his season with the Toronto Blue Jays after being traded there from the Detroit Tigers, where with both a he put up an 18-5 record and a 2.45 ERA. More impressive was his time with Toronto where he put up a 9-1 Record which helped Toronto reached the postseason. Both players we’re gonna come with a hefty price and the Giants seemed to be poised to make a splash by signing one of these players, the leaning being towards Grienke. In the 11th hour the Giants seemed front runners to grab Grienke but then disaster struck and the Arizona Diamondbacks swooped in a grabbed him up. The Giants looked quickly to set their eyes on another ace, and quickly since the pool was getting shallower. Then on December 9th the Giants swooped in and got a someone that would come in and save their struggling rotation, pitcher Jeff Samardzija. Fan response was a collective “Wait, what? Him?”

Jeff Samardzija signed a 90 Million dollar contract with the Giants and looked to be a replacement of some sort for the Giants thinning pitching staff. The reactions to his signing were incredibly mixed at first and for a good reason. Samardzija, who had previously been on the Chicago White Sox the year before, had been pretty average over the course of his career which had started with the Chicago Cubs. Now of course there were flashes of brilliance in him. In 2014 he was chosen to be in the All Star after he was traded to the Oakland Athletics, even though he was voted in while in the National league with the Cubs. While with the Cubs he had a awful 2-7 record but on the flip side carried a a fine 2.83 ERA in 17 starts and had 103 strikeouts. With Oakland in 16 starts he put up a 3.14 ERA and overall that year he put up his second best ERA for career as a starter.

With the Giants, there must’ve been something in his style. Many of his pitches result in more ground balls then the average for pitchers who throw sinkers, which looks to be his signature pitch. A pitcher who grounds balls at the defense could look to do well with the defense the Giants have behind the mound. Not the flashy ace many were hoping for, but it could be what the Giants need going in the 2016 season.

Samardzija made his first start with the Giants on April 6th against the Milwaukee Brewers. In this first start Samardzija looked to have a tough time limiting hits and allowing a trio of walks. Samardzija would lose the game after allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, which was a less then thrilling start for the new Giant. His next start would result in his first win with the Giants and it looked to be a good turn of fortune for Samardzija. He pitched beautifully the game against the Colorado Rockies. He pitched 8 innings and only gave up 6 hits and struck out 5 batters. Surprising was the fact that he pitched great at Coors Field, which over the years has messed up a great many pitchers with its affinity to be a hitters paradise. Even more surprising was the knowledge that Samardzija has actually good numbers in Colorado. A career era of 2.15 in 3 games started there with 2 wins, 24 strikeouts and only 2 home runs allowed in 29.1 innings pitched. Pretty good for someone who will continue to pitch game against the Rockies for 4 more years.

Continuing from his great second start Samardzija dominated in the third rotation spot in the months of April and May. Luckily for the Giants had Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto to help the team after Samardzija had an awful June and July. It was so bad coupled with the fact that the Giants didn’t have a stable bottom of the order that the Giants had look for a new starter by the trade deadline. Matt Moore was traded to the Giants and eventually replaced Samardzija in the third spot, bumping him down to fourth.

Down the stretch towards the end of the season Samardzija got back to his early season performance and led the team to make it into the wild card game. His season ended up having a 12-11 record a pretty good ERA at 3.81 with flashes of lower all season. His year with the Giant was decidedly better than many fans had probably hoped, me included. Jeff Samardzija will hopefully continue to be strong behind Bumgarner, Cueto and Moore. With the additions the Giants made to the rotation over the year will continue to pay off into the next few season when the Giants will continue to make a push to the playoffs.

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