Athletes - Scott Kazmir

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	Athletes - Scott Kazmir

Scott Edward Kazmir (born January 24, 1984 in Houston, Texas) is a left-handed starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Kazmir was drafted in 2002 by the New York Mets. While playing for the double-A Binghamton Mets, he was traded to the Devil Rays along with Jose Diaz on July 30, 2004 for Victor Zambrano and Bartolomé Fortunato. He made his major-league debut on August 23, 2004, pitching five shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners.

As was the case two years before with Jeremy Bonderman of the Detroit Tigers, Kazmir was traded to a losing team with a need to quickly develop young pitching. He started 2004 with the Single-A St. Lucie Mets, and after his trade to the Devil Rays, he received only a few starts at Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. However, he was essentially expected to anchor a young Devil Rays pitching staff from the time he arrived in Tampa Bay. He had a 2-3 record and an ERA of 5.67 in 8 appearances (7 starts) in 2004, but he was clearly making strides in his development; he struck out 11.07 batters per nine innings. Kazmir's 2004 statistics are somewhat misleading, as he is a far more talented pitcher than his statistics would indicate. In 2004, he was the top pitching prospect for the New York Mets, but was traded for the Devil Rays' top veteran Victor Zambrano. This trade was widely lampooned by the New York media and fan base given Kazmir's enormous potential.

After Kazmir had an impressive showing in spring training in 2005, Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella named him the team's No. 2 starter.

2005 Highlights

On June 1st, Fox Sports named Kazmir the number 1 young pitching prospect in the Major Leagues, and claimed that not withstanding any serious injuries, Kazmir should be a future pitching ace and Cy Young Award candidate.

Scouting

Kazmir has four pitches in his arsenal. Arguably his best pitch is a mid 90's fastball that he throws with realative ease. Kazmir also throws a hard breaking 10-4 slider that comes in the low 80s that works well as a major league pitch as well. His third pitch is a changeup which according to a scouting report published by Baseball America, appears to be a major-league quality pitch as well at times. Kazmir struggles with his changeup at times however, sometimes not being able to make the bottom of the pitch fall out like it is supposed to. His final pitch is a 11-5 curveball that while having good movement, often comes in too fast to be an effective pitch, usually clocking in the high 70s to low 80s and looking too much like his slider. Another one of Kazmir's strengths is that while he is a strikeout pitcher, he tends not to give up a lot of home runs. In 32 games in 2005, he led all rookies with 174 strikeouts while only giving up 12 home runs over 186 innings (or 1HR every 15.5 innings).

Kazmir has a couple other weaknesses other than the aforementioned issues with his changeup and curveball pitches. Kazmir at times has shown a lack of aggressiveness with his pitching, which has resulted in a high number of walks. Often times Kazmir will get ahead of a hitter in the pitch count, only to attempt to finish the strikeout by 'painting the corners' with his fastball and slider, and throwing the pitches off the plate instead. He led all of the American League last year with 100 walks. Kazmir also has been criticized for struggling to hold runners on bases, but showed improvement last year, allowing only 7 stolen bases in 2005 while he was on the mound. Kazmir however does not have a very good pickoff move to first, which is especially unusual for a left-hander.

2006 Season

Kazmir is scheduled to start the season opener April 3 at Baltimore. At 22 years, 2 months and 10 days Kazmir will be the youngest opening day starter since Doc Gooden with the Mets in 1986.

Awards and accomplishments

Baseball America High School Player of the Year, 2002
Set a single-season record for strikeouts by high school pitchers in Texas with 175 for Cypress Falls High School (breaking the previous record of 172, set by Josh Beckett
)
Member of the United States Junior Olympic baseball team in 2001; they won the silver medal

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Scott Kazmir ]

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Athletes - Scott Kazmir

2005 Highlights

Scouting

2006 Season

Awards and accomplishments

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