Baseball News: Golden Spikes, Team USA, Samardzija, Manship, Ty Cobb

• From a list of five finalists, all first round draft picks, Florida State catcher Buster Posey won the 2008 Golden Spikes Award as the country's top amateur player. Baseball America, The College Baseball Blog, and MLB.com have more coverage.


• USA Baseball announced the Olympic team roster on Wednesday. Again, Baseball America, The College Baseball Blog, and MLB.com have coverage.


• Thanks to an injury on the parent club, Jeff Samardzija has moved up to AAA, and he's arguably pitching better than he did at AA. Samardzija has struggled to get strike outs as a pro, but he had nine K's in his last outing. Here's a trio of local articles on The Shark.
  
• Coincidentally, for the past few weeks Jeff Manship has been pitching on the same day as Samardzija. Manship was moved up to AA and appears to be struggling. However, on closer look, Manship has given up 11 runs in two starts against Portland, and only seven runs in his four other starts.


• Finally, July 17 is the anniversary of Ty Cobb's death. The Biz of Baseball has a nice writeup on those trying to reform the public's view of the Georgia Peach.