25
2012
Mets Were “Unimpressed” With Scott Kazmir
An article by Former Writers
According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, the Mets were “unimpressed” with Scott Kazmir’s showcase yesterday and that a reunion with Kazmir is “unlikely.”
Last week, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, reported the Mets are one of six teams that Scott Kazmir is considering signing with and that he could make a decision in the next few days.
Sandy Alderson confirmed that and said via Twitter that the team would be scouting one of his workouts.
Original Post 2/20: Scott Kazmir Throwing For Scouts, Would You Be Interested?
Now I understand this is one of those pie in the sky posts that not everyone likes, but I can’t help but to mention Scott Kazmir for the obvious reasons.
It is no secret that Kazmir has not been the same pitcher for the last few years. Ever since 2008 his K rates have dropped and as a result he has not been able to make up for his shoddy command.
For example, 2009 was actually the second best walk rate of his career, however, he struckout two guys less per nine innings than the year before and thus he struggled. Things got worse in 2010 when his strikeout rate dropped to 5.58 K/9 and he had the highest ERA among all pitchers with 140+ innings pitched.
With that bad stuff said, there is nothing I want to see more than Scott Kazmir throw just one inning in a Mets uniform. Sure, it would not be the same Scott Kazmir we traded away in 2004, but it would just feel so good to finally get to see that happening. Everything would come full circle.
Could the Kazmir project to become a lefty reliever turn out the same way the Oliver Perez project turned out? Yes, it definitely could. The only difference is Kazmir won’t be making $12 million per year. If he is inviting scouts to his hometown to watch him pitch, the odds are he is willing to settle for an incentive laden, possibly minor league, deal.
There haven’t been any reports yet of any interest in Kazmir, but my question to you is would you welcome Kazmir back on the team on a minor league deal?
He had a dramatic drop off in velocity last year, but it has yet to be seen if almost a year off has changed that at all. The odds of Kazmir being successful at the major league level again has to less than 25 percent and yet I can’t help, but want to give him one more chance to pitch for the Mets.
About the Author: Former Writers
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I think he’s done as well Petey. I mean it cannot hurt to look, see if he has the talent to become a Loogy which isn’t really setting the bar too high.
But you know, a lot of people still mock the Kazmir mets deal as like a bar joke but really, they were 100% right about him. What they failed at was selling him high based on reports of his talent.
They sold him for the right reasons they just failed to get a good price. Which makes me wonder if other teams felt the same way about him.
I agree on your take on the deal. It was what they got back that was the killer.
He could be a good addition to have, he stil throws hard and has a decent slider, he’s relatively young, he struggle BAD in the only app he had in the DWL, but i’d still take a swing at him, i rather spend a minor league contract on him than on chris young who will pitch a game or 2 and be out for the season..
Actually why not sign both Young and Kazmir? It’s minor league contracts, insist on out clauses and you are actually paying them what 25,000 for a tryout?
Thanks but no thanks, the guy’s done.
Petey, to be fair some people want chris young back, if you have to choose, who you’d take? i know for certain i do not want chris young stealing our $ again..
I don’t want either one of those guys back, ever.
LMAO!! calm down petey!!!
In reality how much did Chris Young “steal” last year? His contract was valued at 1.1M and I am sure there was some insurance to pick up part of that deal. He started only 4 games but was effective of course in those so while it ended up not working it was still better than seeing some of the other guys throw those 4 starts.
Young was actually a god value last year.
4 starts for 1mill projects out to 8 mill for a full year (32 starts).
ANd if you could get 28 more like the first 4, then he would have been a steal (put another way, if you could get someone to put up those stats for only 8-9mill, then you would jump all over him).
so of course it hurt to have him go down, but the problem wasn’t that he was a waste of money, it is that they did not have another 3-4 guys just like him to finish out the year!
Chris Youngs 4 starts were better than all of Pelfreys starts. We lost the wrong guy for the year.
Trs86, you cannot be serious??? the guy pitched 4 games and got about $1.1 million. that’s $275,000 per start, out of those 4 starts he had 2 good ones and 2 mediocre ones. he STOLE the money, for people who always complain about signing oft injure guys sandy sure got a pass for spending it on him,.. whoever wants this guy back must not know baseball or the economics of it..
See above as any proposed that it was still only about average contract value. We also do not know if there was any insurance on the contract or even if there were some start stipulations in there as well…
Again, when you don’t have a lot of money you have to take chances on guys like Cap, Young, Dickey, etc. Some work out, some don’t. This time if you offer Young a contract it would for sure only be a MIL contract and have about 25,000 tops assigned to the guaranteed part.
Is that like Kelvim Escobar signing for 1.25M and not even throwing ONE pitch?
I’m leaning towards this same opinion too.
I’d really like to see some SP depth in the minors, not so much BP arms.
At this point, you throw whatever is available against the wall and see what sticks. Being so thin at the SP position, having more options is better than less options.
Meh, a minor league incentive laden deal? Maybe. You can never have too much pitching, especially lefties.
he certainly does seem done, but on the flip side he is still relatively young. And given how short they are on SP depth, if he will take a MiL invite deal, then why not.
And I don’t care at this point that he used to be a Met prospect. Treat him the same as any other reclaimation project.
A minor league deal makes sense. He’s young, he’s a lefty, and he has MLB experience. Remember, you can’t teach experience.
At the very least, it’ll give some people closure if he’s signed to a minor league deal and comes to Spring Training, regardless of whether or not he makes the team in the end.
No offense meant Nick but if Kazmir could be a positive for this team what does that really tell you about the current team?
Seems like just another step back hoping it is a step forward.
Or a nostalgic stab at hope where hope doesn’t exist.
He’s not going to replace Santana, Pelfrey, Dickey Niese or Gee…
SO unless he is going to the Pen I just don’t see what purpose he would serve here.
His Met boat sailed long ago!
“Seems like just another step back hoping it is a step forward.
Or a nostalgic stab at hope where hope doesn’t exist.”
Or a flier on a one time hot commodity with little risk. All teams do it.
You mean at the expense of Kids and Long Term competitivness like all the other moves we have made?
Tell me when was the last time the Yankees, Boston, and Phillies made moves like that?
What kid would be held back by having Kazmir on a minor league deal? Tell me. If he’s not performing and Harvey or Familia are ready to move up to Buffalo, do you think he wouldn’t get cut or moved somehow?
Do I really need to get a list of fringy guys on minor league deals by other teams?
Name any kid in AA that would not get promoted despite his progress because there is no room in Buffalo because of kazmir!
Hey aren’t you one of those guys who think OLD FOLKS are risky and a waste of money?
What happened to that guy he seems to have changed his tune now that every guy his Hero has acquired turned out to be over 30!
You know like the three 30 year old plus guys we used the saved the 28 Year old Reyes’ Money because he was GOING TO BE old to get?
Not one single kid would get held back, Metsie. None. 0. If the kids are performing and seem to be ready to move up, there will be a spot for them. Guys like Kazmir and Batista are there as filler for the big club. They are cheap and disposable. If one of your journeyman filler guys isn’t performing and you’ve got a buck ready to come up, it is not a hard decision. Hell, even if the journeyman is performing, he will most likely get shipped off.
“Hey aren’t you one of those guys who think OLD FOLKS are risky and a waste of money?”
no, I’m one of thsoe guys who isn’t stupid enough to think the typical player gets better after 30. I don’t like signing 30+ year old guys to long term deals. I prefer looking internally to fill a hole before going outside.
“What happened to that guy he seems to have changed his tune now that every guy his Hero has acquired turned out to be over 30!
You know like the three 30 year old plus guys we used the saved the 28 Year old Reyes’ Money because he was GOING TO BE old to get?”
which one was signed to a long term deal? Which one is guarenteed to be here in 2014? Which one of them is not a role player who can moved? Which one is going to be there for years, holding a kid back?
If you build your MLB roster properly you don’t need washed up Filler!
ever year they pick up a few old guys for depth like this.
How many do it at the expense of a young All Star who just won the batting Title?
Yankees = Bartolo Colon last year.
Even think of a guy like Freddie Garcia. Mets signed him on 09, didn’t give him a shot so the White Sox did and one year later he went 12-6 and he had a decent year with the Yankees as well.
Teams do it all the time, you are just trying to find every angle to bash the Mets.
Well as I said in the article I was talking about bringing him in as a reliever and right now Tim Byrdak is the only lefty reliever the Mets have right now so they could use some depth there.
Jon Garland signs minor league deal w/Cleveland
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7570122/cleveland-indians-sign-jon-garland-minor-league-deal
Off Topic: Seems the rumor now is that Yoenis Cespedes has agreed to sign with the A’s.
http://twitter.com/#!/TBrownYahoo/status/169105855701188608
No way Kazmir is getting a MLB deal at this point.
Sure, I’ll take him on a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. I’m 85% sure that he’s cooked, but you never know. Doesn’t hurt to take an extended look and see if he can get healthy again.
87mph fastballs are the new market inefficiency.
Sandy, get him.. most likely 3 out of the 5 will be no good or injure.. protect yourself for once.. do something positive for this franchise.. not saying that kazmir is sandy koufax or anything, but at least he’s someone who can help in case donal hits the fan…
Off Topic: Ruben Tejada has still not joined the team due to visa issues. Apparently, the team filed in November, but he never bothered to pick it up.
Off Topic: Ike Davis flying back to New York to be further examined. Supposedly has nothing to do with the ankle.
saw that. A chill went down my spine, and visions of shellfish danced in my head.
You know it’s not officially Spring Training until you have a player fly to New York for more tests.
Now that it’s out of the way we can move on to the next stage, visa issues.
Tejada your visa is ready for pickup, I repeat Tejada your visa is ready for pickup.
Oh and while were at it. Jason Bay feel free to show up early to camp. No one will think any less of you.
You ever wonder why they keep flying these players back to NY for ‘further’ tests?
What? They don’t have reputable sports doctors in FL who can do the tests and send results to NY?
I’m reading TC is not very happy with Tejada at the moment.
Uh, oh…Bay isn’t there yet? Don’t tell Kong……
Well they already pay the guys in NY a retainer to do that year round and money IS tight you know! LOL
Besides in Florida they are just as likely to prescribe geritol and call him in the morning!
What’s cheaper, sending him to the local walk in clinic, or a plane ticket back to NY?
depending of course on what the issue is, hoepfully they don’t fly him up for something like a scan or blood test.
the blurb on Tejada I saw this moring said they expected it to be resolved in time for him to arrive by Saturday, which is the actual required reporting day for him.
Bay? he can feel free to stay home until Mid August if he wants to!
LoL SRT, I forgot about how Kong dislikes Jason Bay. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t commented on this before the day is through.
yeah, the crusade last year when he did not show up for the voluntary 1-2 day minicamp was a thing of beauty.
“What? They don’t have reputable sports doctors in FL who can do the tests and send results to NY?”
If you had the choice, would you see a doctor in a state known as God’s Waiting Room?
Oh, you guys are bad……
I can understand the mindset but I’d have to think there are some very good sports doctor’s/facilities in FL as well. They can’t be all geriatric doctors…..
I see the problem here….
What they should have said was….
Tejada su visa está lista para la recolección
No wonder he didn’t get the message! LOL
If I’m understanding the new CBA rules correctly, signing Kazmir to a minor league contract for depth protection will cost the Mets an extra $100,000 along with allowing Kazmir an opt out by 1 June – if he’s not added to the 25 man 5 days before ST ends. This applies to all players with at least 6 years major league experience who sign a minor league contract.
Don’t know what the new rules are if he winds up on the DL while in the minors.
looks like a big non-issue. saw another crawl that he was cleared and is returning to Fla.
Off Topic: I like Adam Rubin’s coverage of the Mets but I have to say that this probably has to qualify for the most wasteful tweet of the day.
AdamRubinESPN:
David Wright will be golfing with Jeff Wilpon today.
http://twitter.com/AdamRubinESPN/statuses/172384421683531776
that is one of those pairings where I really wonder what the hell they talk about.
I just watched video of Scott one from 2007 and the other from last year. Huge difference in how freely he is throwing the ball. In 07 there was more fluidity in his arm, more snap on his pitches. Now he seems to be pushing the ball up to the catcher and with no snap at the end of his delivery. Which could all be because of the injury to his elbow, which was not severe and did not require surgery. It could be a mental block, it could be truly finishing off his pitches causes pain. Honestly the best thing that could happen to him ( i know this will sound crazy) is if he pitches and goes full out and tears the ligament in his elbow requiring him to get TJ surgery.
Why? Because it will A) tighten his elbow back up, B) most people who get the surgery come back with an increase in velocity. C) It would give him time of to truly rehab his arm and work on his mechanics. D) He would more than likely return fully healthy, and have a good 5 to 7 years of career left and a decent 3rd man in a rotation. Of course this is all hypothetical but, after watching the videos and seeing the difference in the way he is pitching and the huge loss in velocity. It seems rather logical..