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.
