Scott Kazmir

07/06/08

Kazmir, Navarro going to All-Star Game

ST. PETERSBURG -- Dioner Navarro and Scott Kazmir will represent the Rays at this summer's All-Star Game in New York. Navarro was selected by American League manager Terry Francona of the Red Sox, while Kazmir was selected by the players' ballot.

In addition, Rays rookie third baseman Evan Longoria is a Final Vote nominee for the AL, which means the Rays could have three players at the game.

"I'm just happy there's more than one," Kazmir said. "There's a lot of players in here who deserve to be on the team. Longoria is still up for the Final Vote and we're going to make a push for him."

For Kazmir, this will be his second stint on the AL All-Star team, as he becomes the Rays' second two-time All-Star (Carl Crawford, 2004, '07). The 24-year-old left-hander made the team in 2006 and pitched one shutout inning, allowing no hits.

Making the team was nice for Kazmir, but how he did so made the honor more significant.

"That was the big thing, to know that your peers really respect your game," Kazmir said. "To vote you in, that means the most to me."

Kazmir missed the first month this season while recovering from soreness in his left elbow. After dropping his first start of the season to the Red Sox, he won a club-record six consecutive starts.

He becomes just the third pitcher to be selected to the All-Star team after missing April with an injury; Charlie Hough (Texas, 1986) and Ewell Blackwell (Cincinnati, 1949) are the other two.

MLB                

Rest of the Story

07/02/08

With Rays on top, Scott Kazmir now considers trade from Mets a blessing

For a long time Scott Kazmir looked back on that July day in 2004 and considered it the worst of his professional career. No more. The day the Mets dealt him to Tampa Bay now ranks as one of his best.

"It turned out to be a blessing," said Kazmir, the first-round pick from 2002. "If that doesn't happen, I don't pitch in the majors as soon as I did. If that doesn't happen I'm not on this team, sitting in first place and hoping for October."

Kazmir's rapid ascent through the Mets' farm system ended on July 30, 2004, as he was stretching to make one of his first starts for Double-A Binghamton. Summoned to the office of then-manager Ken Oberkfell, he learned about the ill-fated trading deadline deal for righthander Victor Zambrano.

"I started laughing at the beginning because in our relationship we joked around a lot," Kazmir said of Oberkfell. "He looked at me with a straight face and said 'this is serious.' I didn't know what to think.

"It was the last thing I thought would really happen. It was a huge shock. I felt heartbroken. I really didn't get to prove I was worth the investment. I wanted to show them it was worth it to take that chance on me. I never got the chance."

Even though Tampa Bay averaged 97losses the past three years, Kazmir had a winning record in each and made the All-Star team in 2006. He is 7-3 with a 2.28 ERA as he faces the Red Sox tonight at Tropicana Field in a big AL East showdown.

The other thing everyone now knows is that Zambrano was anything but a savior. His failures contrast starkly with Kazmir's successes. Injuries limited Zambrano to just three more games in 2004 and he went 7-12 in 2005. His injury-plagued 2006 was his last with the Mets.

Kazmir, who went 13-9 and led the AL with 239 strikeouts last year, may end up having a significant impact on New York's other franchise now. He has been part of a massive turnaround that has helped the Rays compile the majors' best record (51-32). Should the success continue, Tampa Bay could put an end to the Yankees' string of 13 straight playoff appearances.

"It's a completely different feel," said Kazmir, who signed a three-year contract extension with the Rays in May for $28.5million with a club option for a fourth year. "At the beginning of last year and the year before, we're not thinking about playoffs. We're thinking about the game in front of us. We're thinking about who is going to be here and who is going to be gone next because we had a lot of trades going on. We just knew it wasn't going to happen then.

"They kept telling us to hang in there because help is on the way....You're a competitor and you just get tired of the losing."

Experienced players such as Troy Percival, Cliff Floyd and Eric Hinske were added to the roster. They have taken an interest in mentoring the young and talented Rays. And manager Joe Maddon and the coaching staff changed their tune. The message was no longer "keep improving." It became "it's time to win."

"The team was ready to be challenged and they've done a great job," Kazmir said. "With the Red Sox and Yankees in our division it used to feel we didn't have a shot....Now things started to change. We're young. We're hungry to win and just to be respected. Before we were the butt-end of every single joke. It wasn't fun to be a Devil Ray."

Kazmir, 24, says that now it's nothing but fun to be a Ray.

"Coming from where we've been the last couple years it's amazing to feel like we have a shot," he said. "We're talking about the possibility of having an October. I am amazingly happy."

 NY Daily News

Original story

07/11/05 

What was your welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment?

Coming up last August; going to Seattle; pitching against Ichiro, Edgar [Martinez]. Then, after winning the game, getting showered with beer by the team. I'll always remember that beer shower.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

In Oakland this year I threw a pitch, and one of my contacts shot out of my eye. I'm looking around, and I don't even know what to do. My vision's terrible without contacts. I told the ump, 'I've got one contact in, there's no way I'm going to see the strike zone. I don't think the hitter wants me to pitch like that.' They called time, and it took, like, 20 minutes to find my backups and put another one in.

If I weren't playing baseball, I'd be ...

in college, at UT [University of Texas]. Maybe just to play baseball. I'd be a junior right now.

If I were commissioner for a day, I would ...

give it up. I wouldn't ever want that job. I think we're doing all right right now.

Last Week

He allowed three runs in 13 1/3 innings, in starts against the Blue Jays and the Twins.

Sports Illustrated