The Blog is Working!!!

We started this blog on May 18th....

Since then

Kazmir is 1-2
His ERA has gone up over one point. From 2.391 to 3.592

That's all i have to say. But if we keep the blog up he could be sent down to triple A by August

Hey Lee Jenkins - Thanks for gouging my eye balls!

So, it's Wednesday morning and I'm doing my daily internet thing and checking out pictures of Lastings Milledge's first performance as a Met when Lee Jenkins of the New York Times has to freaking ruin the day with this Kazmir BS. What the F Lee?

Why on the day that Mets fans should be happy about their latest prospect playing in his first major league ball game do you need to write an article titled, "Kazmir deal is a debt the mets still owe."

Some quotes:

• Four out of every five days, the Mets are a resurgent franchise, flush with charismatic leaders and bankable stars, hailed for their progressive thinking and bold strategy. But on the fifth day, when Scott Kazmir takes the mound for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, everything the Mets have accomplished comes temporarily undone. No longer are they the team that leads the National League East. They are only the team that traded Kazmir for damaged goods named Víctor Zambrano.

4/5 days? Who isn't thinking about this trade daily? The days Kazmir pitches are a relief. I don't have to wonder what he's doing. The bottom line clearly will say: W, Kazmir, 8IP, 9K,

• maybe it really was their worst deal since they sent Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi in 1971.

If Kazmir throws 7 no-hitters and the Mets still don't have any by the time his career is done then my hand goes straight into the blender.

• "We had too many cooks in the kitchen," said Jim Duquette, then the Mets' general manager, now the vice president for baseball operations of the Baltimore Orioles. "In that situation, if someone disagrees, he might not speak up. The loudest voices are the ones that get heard. It does become sort of like a mob mentality."

Isn't hindsight great. Too many cooks in the kitchen - that's your excuse? really Jim?

• They overhauled their medical staff and cut short a lucrative contract with the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, in part because team doctors had prematurely signed off on the Kazmir trade.

-This really pissed me off. He's talking about the Dr. that just did my shoulder surgery and I think he was great. So a double FU to Lee Jenkins for throwing that in the article

• Duquette said he asked the commissioner's office if there were grounds to file a grievance against the Devil Rays. Wilpon said he asked the commissioner's office if the Mets had any recourse. They were told that the problem had to be resolved between the teams. The Mets could blame the Devil Rays for not supplying more comprehensive medical reports, but then they would also have to blame their own doctors for accepting limited reports.

- If I ever go to a Devil Rays game... Lets just say they'll have a few extra upper deckers that day... if you know what I mean

• But Kazmir is the rare young pitcher whose confidence could not be shaken. He developed as rapidly in the major leagues as he did in the minors, even with the New York metropolitan area eyeing him from afar. He has proven, over and over again, that he could have handled the pressure of a big market.

• "It wasn't even fair," said catcher Josh Paul of the Devil Rays. "I would put down my glove and the ball would go exactly where I wanted it."

Maybe its not Kazmir... maybe there is something going on with a magnet and Josh Paul's glove? Anyone know how he pitches with other catchers?

• The franchise may never fully recover from that date. It has become part of Mets' lore, right along with 1986 and 1969. When Kazmir is asked about New York's preoccupation with him, he tries not to touch it.

Part of the Mets Lore? Lore is not something like trading Kazmir... lore is Enrique Iglesias' mole or Julio Igleasias' voice... not this crap.

All of this leaves me to ponder. What will makeup for this trade? Originally it was seeing Zambrano flourish as a Met but I think that wish is pretty much gone.
Is it getting Kazmir back as a free agent?
Is it Kazmir getting hurt? (never a good thing)
Any suggestions?

Kazmir finally gets shelled and we don't post for four days. We are such losers. Isn't that the whole point of this blog? To cry on virtual shoulders when this young phenom throws fire and gloat when he's lit up like the Texas sky? Bad job by us. Bad job.

But more importantly...it was a BAD JOB BY KAZMIR to kick off the Memorial Day weekend!!! 5 ER in only 5.1 Innings!!!

Let's hope that along with "wearing bikinis as acceptable outfits in places most definitely not the beach" the stylish summer trend for 2006 is horrific outings from Kazmir.

Kazmir Is Just Like J.C.

No, not that J.C. but Scott Kazmir joins Jose Cruz, Jr. and Aubrey Huff as the only Devil Rays to win the American League Player of the Week award since the 2003 season. Hard to believe Ben Grieve didn't pick up this hardware.

Going 2-o, while allowing one run in 15 innings and striking out 19 hitters tends to win you awards like this.

Feel His Wrath!

Was thinking about something the other day that I'll call "The Kazmir Effect."

Think of it like a (hopefully) less destructive "Curse of the Bambino," where the ghost of a player somehow manages to continue to torture the team that traded him long after he is gone.

Here's the first possible victim of the Kazmir Effect: Mike Pelfrey.

Two weeks ago Pelfrey "wasn't even close" to being called up to the big team. This past Saturday morning, the incomporable Eddie Coleman reported that Pelfrey was now very likely to be called up to pitch the Thursday game against the Phillies. Some turn around, huh?

But then...

Pelfrey recorded exactly two more outs in his start on Saturday night than I did. And the Mets front office realized that he wasn't close to being ready for the call-up and elected to take a flyer on Alay Soler who could be anywhere between 25 and 38 years old and could be Jose Contreras (the dominating White Sox version) or Jose Contreras (the completely ineffective Yankee version).

So what does any of this have to do with Scott Kazmir?

Connect the dots...everyone in the world is talking about how great Kazmir is. How the Mets are the dumbest team on earth to give up such a young superstar pitcher. And they're right. And the current Mets administration who had nothing to do with the trade knows everyone is right and knows there isn't a thing they can do about it.

EXCEPT - Have a newer, better, shinier, younger, strike-outier pitcher of their own. That person is Mike Pelfrey. Is he ready for the majors? No way. But can he quiet down some of the Kazmir criticism? Maybe. And that's the more important thing right now.

Let's just be thankful that Pelfrey was so horrible on Saturday night that Omar realized bringing him up would be a disaster. So a big shout-out to the Tarrytown Timberwolves or Albany Peacocks or whatever group of never-will-be's made Mike Pelfrey look like...well...look like Victor Zambrano on Saturday night, preventing what could have been a catastraphe.

And Take That!

I know we're beyond the point of making excuses for his excellence based on the match-up, but Kazmir looking like a stud against the Marlins shouldn't make you hop in the bath holding the hairdryer just yet. Both Jeff Suppan and Jorge Sosa have looked all-world against Uncle Girardi's squad in the past two weeks as well.

What concerns me more about Kazmir right now is his impeccable timing in the past few weeks. Zambrano hurts his arm, learns he needs Tommy John surgery, he's done for the year, and let's face it, his Mets career is likely over. So for the next few days, all the talk about the Mets centered on two topics.

1. The present issue of their starting rotation being an absolute mess because both Jose Lima and Jeremei Gonzalez were now playing prominent roles in it.
2. The past issue of what a horrendous move it was getting Zambrano.

While fans and media were focused on these two miserable items, Kazmir goes out and throws seven innings of scoreless ball, giving up only three hits and one walk - while striking out nine. Subtle reminder of how our rotation would be in the complete opposite of trouble if he were in it instead of Zambrano.

Then we have yesterday...every Met fan spent the day looking like they had been tricked into eating a tofu burger at a barbecue thanks to Billy Wagner's inability to pitch, Willie Randolph's inability to judge his players, and Rick Peterson's inability to do just about everything. It was one of the worst days to be a Mets fan. I don't feel that is being overstating. The worst Jerry. The worst! The day was so painful not only because of the Saturday afternoon fiasco, but also because the team didn't play until the next night. There was no new game to take your mind off the old loss. We were forced to stew in our anger and disappointment for 28 hours.

And what does Scotty KKKKKKKKKKK (yeah, that's right 11!) do to help us with our pain? He does this. I'm beginning to think he not only hates the Mets organization for trading, but that he hates all Met fans too. As if he needs to torture us with his greatness to prove a point.

I want the season to end now

I will rip my fingernails off one by one if i need to read about another great Kazmir start. Today he had 11 Ks and 4 hits in eight innings to beat Dontrelle. At least he didn't get the complete game. Now even if the Mets are to trade for Dontrelle this freaking guy is still better.

Here are some quotes....


At 22 years, 3 months, Kazmir (7-2) is the youngest pitcher to have seven wins by May 21 since Fernando Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981.

Kazmir has compiled an impressive list of pitching victims, beating former Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay of Toronto, Curt Schilling of Boston and now Willis,

MY FAVORITE:Kazmir may be the best pitcher in the AL East, he may be the best pitcher in the game right now," Gomes said.

"The kid's (Kazmir) got great stuff and you can see that when he got the lead, he even turned it up a notch," Marlins manager Joe Girardi said. "To me, that's the mark of an ace."