Jeff Samardzija

[Tugg Speedman]

 signed a 5 year $90 million contract with the San Fran Giants.  That makes his salary larger than every ND player in the NFL COMBINED!  And he is an average pitcher at best.

(Samardzija was a first team All-American for ND as a wide-receiver.  All the 2007 draft boards had him as a sure first round pick in the NFL draft.  He was also ND's best pitcher and decided to focus on baseball, spending most of his career with the Cubs).

Make more money than everyone else from your school combined and be able to get out of bed when you're 45.  Why do any two-sports athletes ever play football?

[GGGG]

signed a 5 year $90 million contract with the San Fran Giants.  That makes his salary larger than every ND player in the NFL COMBINED!  And he is an average pitcher at best.

(Samardzija was a first team All-American for ND as a wide-receiver.  All the 2007 draft boards had him as a sure first round pick in the NFL draft.  He was also ND's best pitcher and decided to focus on baseball, spending most of his career with the Cubs).

Make more money than everyone else from your school combined and be able to get out of bed when you're 45.  Why do any two-sports athletes ever play football?

Because they can't make it in baseball usually.  (Russell Wilson)

Or they simply like to play it more.

[Blackhat]

You should try to tell American minorities that.    Oh wait, we have.  It's not cool enough.

[MerrittsMustache]

Because they can't make it in baseball usually.  (Russell Wilson)

Same reason I went into Engineering instead of pro baseball 

[brandx]

Because they can't make it in baseball usually.  (Russell Wilson)

Or they simply like to play it more.

Danny Ainge & Michael Jordan with MLB/NBA. Drew Henson with MLB/NFL.

Deion, Brian Jordan and Bo were the exceptions that were good/great in MLB and NFL.

[jesmu84]

Was the MLB Offseason thread not good enough for you?

[brandx]

Was the MLB Offseason thread not good enough for you?

An ND player should never have his own thread (unless it's something bad and we get to make fun of him).

[GGGG]

Danny Ainge & Michael Jordan with MLB/NBA. Drew Henson with MLB/NFL.

Deion, Brian Jordan and Bo were the exceptions that were good/great in MLB and NFL.

This post just caused me to look up Deion's baseball stats.  .263/.319/.392.  OPS of .711.  That would have given him a career similar to Kolten Wong's 2015.

Really much better than I remembered. 

[brandx]

This post just caused me to look up Deion's baseball stats.  .263/.319/.392.  OPS of .711.  That would have given him a career similar to Kolten Wong's 2015.

Really much better than I remembered.

Same here Sultan.

I looked it up before I listed him with Bo and Brian Jordan because I didn't remember he was that successful either.

[JWags85]

Because they can't make it in baseball usually.  (Russell Wilson)

Or they simply like to play it more.

Also much more variability at the beginning of your career.  Get drafted in the first few rounds of the NFL draft, you're usually on a roster getting big bucks at 22.

Good college baseball player, get drafted in the first few rounds, good chance you still go to the minors for quite a few years.  Instead of learning and progressing in Lambeau or AT&T Stadium, you do it playing in Nowheresville, USA riding a bus. 

Lots of great talented players don't pan out at the highest level.  Either you get a cup of coffee on Sundays or playing AA ball in Chattanooga.

[rocket surgeon]

Also much more variability at the beginning of your career.  Get drafted in the first few rounds of the NFL draft, you're usually on a roster getting big bucks at 22.

Good college baseball player, get drafted in the first few rounds, good chance you still go to the minors for quite a few years.  Instead of learning and progressing in Lambeau or AT&T Stadium, you do it playing in Nowheresville, USA riding a bus. 

Lots of great talented players don't pan out at the highest level.  Either you get a cup of coffee on Sundays or playing AA ball in Chattanooga.

actually chattanooga is a pretty cool city, no state income tax and probably one of the best AA parks in the nation-AT&T park right on the bank of the tennessee river, but you're right-still riding in a hot school bus instead of southwest

[chapman]

Also much more variability at the beginning of your career.  Get drafted in the first few rounds of the NFL draft, you're usually on a roster getting big bucks at 22.

Good college baseball player, get drafted in the first few rounds, good chance you still go to the minors for quite a few years.  Instead of learning and progressing in Lambeau or AT&T Stadium, you do it playing in Nowheresville, USA riding a bus. 

Lots of great talented players don't pan out at the highest level.  Either you get a cup of coffee on Sundays or playing AA ball in Chattanooga.

Exactly this.  Most MLB players don't spend barely two seasons in the minors before hitting the majors like Samardzija did.  Anyone not a top MLB prospect will get a nominal signing bonus, then go through Rookie ball, A, A+, AA, and AAA making little.  If they advance through the minors, they're under team control, owed nothing more than the ~$500k league minimum for three years of service time, and three arbitration years where they can see a nice pay raise.  Only after the six years of service time can they hit the free agent market and cash in on the monster deals we hear all about.  That's a long, difficult journey for players whose other option could be hitting an NFL roster immediately, and signing a free agent deal before they may have advanced to AAA taking the baseball route.

[real chili 83]

Eff ND.

[buckchuckler]

Exactly this.  Most MLB players don't spend barely two seasons in the minors before hitting the majors like Samardzija did.  Anyone not a top MLB prospect will get a nominal signing bonus, then go through Rookie ball, A, A+, AA, and AAA making little.  If they advance through the minors, they're under team control, owed nothing more than the ~$500k league minimum for three years of service time, and three arbitration years where they can see a nice pay raise.  Only after the six years of service time can they hit the free agent market and cash in on the monster deals we hear all about.  That's a long, difficult journey for players whose other option could be hitting an NFL roster immediately, and signing a free agent deal before they may have advanced to AAA taking the baseball route.

Really depends though.  If you are a top college player, you probably don't go through all the steps in the minors.  Maybe a bit in the low minors to manage workload the first year, but then they get moved up quickly.  Especially for college guys taken in the first couple rounds. 

Also, it doesn't take the 6 years to start making serious money.  Once players hit arbitration they can start making pretty big money.  The only position in the NFL that has MLB earning potential is a QB. 

Plus living longer, being able to walk and think and all those other bonuses as well.  But realistically, no one in their early 20s thinks about that stuff. 

Oh yeah, and Samardizja stinks.  What a disappointment.  Just terrible. 

[real chili 83]

ND sucks