Free agent left-hander Scott Kazmir is considering six teams and could decide on his next club within a few days, ESPN.com's Buster Olney tweets. The Mets, who selected Kazmir in the first round of the 2002 draft, are among the interested teams.
Kazmir worked out in front of about ten scouts last week, throwing in the 86-89 mph range. The 28-year-old appeared in one game for the Angels last year, but got released after struggling at Triple-A. The Yankees are not interested, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.
Prediction: Kazmir signs with the Mets, totally rebounds, makes all of his starts, puts up 10 K/9 and gets traded to the Marlins for Carlos Zambrano.
EDIT: Crikey, I forget how young so many of y’all are. This isn’t a real prediction. It’s a joke, a reference to the infamously awful Kazmir for (Victor) Zambrano trade. The really sad part is, it wasn’t even the worst trade the Mets did in that 24 hour period. The day before, they dealt Jose Bautista (and Ty Wiggington) to the Pirates for a few months of Kris Benson.
Nah, I remember this one. The Mets had a string of some TERRIBLE GMs over those years. Steve Phillips, Duquette, and, of course, the reviled Omar Minaya.
I don’t blame Duquette for the Jose Bautista trade. Three other teams had given up on him before then. Including those same Pirates who left him unprotected in the Rule V draft and lost him to the Orioles.
I know you’re just being snarky with your prediction but I’ll go ahead and say there’s no way in hell that Kazmir posts a 10 K/9 ratio.
The Jose Bautista trade looked bad then. Don’t forget, they traded their top catching prospect to the Royals acquire him, Justin Huber, and then flipped him and their top RHP prospect Matt Peterson, for half of a season of Kris Benson. To compound their mistakes, they signed Benson to an extension that was double what he would get on the open market. It’s like the Knicks Carmelo Anthony trade, but without the talent.
The string of terrible GMs started with Al Harazin, who had all the resources to wait for Barry Bonds but instead overpaid Bobby Bonilla. His successor, Joe McIlvaine, was the only good GM we had since Frank Cashen, but Freddy Wilpon got tired of having a farm system and said he didn’t have the “skill sets” to be a GM.
I have no idea how I posted this twice…damn disqus.
A few months of Benson??? They had him a few months because they were able to fleece the Orioles into a) taking Benson b) giving up John Maine and Jorge Julio for him. Maine posted two very solid years as a Met and Julio brought back El Duque. It was a very good trade – Wiggy had no position on the Mets since Wright was ready to take 3rd.
It was a bad trade, but Omar in his prime made it look good. If Maine had stayed healthy he would be a legitimate number two starter today, and how could they have known Duque was 5 years older than he claimed to be.
Minaya was great at making behind the curtain moves like that; he usually followed them up with taking the money he saved and flushing it down the throne, which is what we rightfully remember.
We cant really blame the mets fro trading Bautista. I mean he started being relevant two years ago. And Ty is a utility player.
Rick Peterson can fix him in ten minutes…
He’ll teach Kazmir a knuckleball but it will take Kazmir ten years to master it. Kazmir will then have 10 more years of success in the majors as the first successful left-handed knuckleballer since Gene Bearden. Book it!
Gene Bearden had quite a rookie season: an ERA title and the Indians last world championship! Shame his career fell off after that, he could’ve been the best knuckleballer since the great Eddie Cicotte.
I thought the Mets didn’t even send in a scout to watch his work out.
(If true) Than that’s exactly why they are still interested 😉
They couldn’t afford the airfare…
I’d welcome Kazmir back to the Mets. It seems like a typical Alderson signing. I’d imagine if he’s healthy, he could put up similar numbers to Capuano.
If he’s healthy, the flying pigs in the outfield might make it harder to homer off him, too.
come back to the salt lake bees.
“Struggled in AAA” is an understatement. Blurb from the game recap last year before Kazmir was given his outright release…
Kazmir coughed up six runs in 3.2 innings last night, walking five
batters and plunking three more, giving him a 15.15 ERA and 13/16 K/BB
ratio in four starts at Triple-A.
Ouch.
He was playing hurt and the team continued to push him when he shouldn’t have been pitching.
Why do these writers make every has been player sound like they are all-stars?
There is nothing even remotely close in this article that suggests that.
How can someone consider the Mets?
To help his pitching stats I suppose. Then again those fences are moving in a bit I believe this year.
If they make the best offer, why not? Thats the way it works 99% of the time.
Kaz was dearly loved as a Ray and you should have heard how miffed the fans were over the trade to the Angels. How do you feel now Rays fans? S-Rod playing and Alex Torres near ready. Poor Kaz could never get out of the fifth inning. High pitch counts, threw out his arm. He drove me absolutely nuts watching him pitch. Good luck to however signs him.
I hope they don’t sign him. I don’t like his music.
Kashmir?
He’s awful now. Just awful. I don’t understand how any team can offer him more than a minor league contract and a Spring Training invite. Anything more is a drastic overpay for a sub replacement level player.
I agree.
The article does not indicate if he is fishing for a major league contract or not…which is what I’m curious about. If teams were willing to gamble on Willis with minor league contracts then why not Kazmir. Maybe he’s fixable.
If the 2012 Mets season was an installment in the Major League film franchise, Kazmir would totally turn it around and, along with a resurgent Santana, an amazing comeback from Mark Prior, and a humbled and productive Milton Bradley in right field, they’d squeak their way into the playoffs on the last day of the season.
In the real world… Mets fans have my sympathies.
Who do you figure for the second most losses in the NL this year, the Cubs or the Mets? (I figure the Astros have the #1 slot locked up.)
Given the division they are in it has to be the Mets by the nature of the two divisions alone when it comes to quality of competition.
Both Florida and Washington made serious improvements. Phillies and Braves are what they are.
The NL Central got worse with Brewers losing Braun most likely via suspension and Prince leaving and of course the Cardinals losing Pujols.
Put the Mets in the NL Central and they would fare better but not in the NL East this season with the moves made in that division.
You do realize that Milton Bradley or Mark Prior is not (nor has been as far as I know) been Mets property (nor I wish he were on Bradley’s case).
Given the Mets are in the NL East rather than the NL Central, the third worst record in the NL is probably the nadir regarding win-loss record. The Cubs will probably end up losing more games than the Mets.
And you do realize that it’s pretty rare that a rabbi, a priest, and an imam actually walk into a bar together at the same time, right?
They’re called jokes.
I got the joke: Mets ar teh sux0rs tis seas0n, lol.
After hearing one too many times, I don’t find it amusing at all. It’s not you. I only blame myself.
Poking fun at how many games the Mets and Cubs will lose this year may seem like cheap shots, but I really only meant it as commiserating over some gallows humor.
I’m a Cub fan after all. There’s a probable 90 loss season on my horizon, too.
giants have to be one of the teams that are interested, vogelsong and lincecum are both having back problems..without knowing how serious either of these could be we have to be looking for some insurance
Trade Buster Posey to the Rays for Niemann or Davis. We’ll throw in Brignac and J.P. Howell
Maybe Buster Posey for Niemann and Davis and Brignac and JP Howell…and Moore…I’m assuming you were being facetious though haha.
In reality (obviously it won’t happen), what would someone like Posey fetch in a trade?
a ton..lol we’ll never know
whered this come from? sure we’ll trade you posey for moore, price, and longoria. we’ll throw in zito for the cherry on top.
I doubt he’d get more than a non-roster invite with no guaranteed money. His flame out was so severe. Mets could very well offer it because thats how they roll these days, they took a chance on Kelvim Escobar last year and lost so they might be able to regress to the means with Kaz 😉
The Mets can lure any small time free agent that it wants to. The money difference is irrelevant because if you produce you will multiply your future contracts. You get a true chance right now as opposed to teams with lots of talent.
It would be just like the Mets — trade their #1 draft pick because they’re worried about future arm problems, watch him pitch like an all-star for a few years, and when his arm finally does fall off, NOW they’ll sign him.