Kazmir takes over major-league strikeout lead

Starter Scott Kazmir needed seven strikeouts tonight by Scott Kazmir to surpass the Twins' Johan Santana for the major-league lead, and when he left tonight's game after six innings pitched he had 10. Given that Santana is unlikely to pitch again this season, Kazmir is likely to finish the year as the 2007 season's strikeout king.

Comments

[Ryan Callahan]

"Starter Scott Kazmir needed seven strikeouts by Scott Kazmir to surpass the twins..."

appearantly this author doesnt reread his articles.

[bill]

heh.

Of course, Upton might be the gem of our scouting department, and the best home grown player we have.... Kazmir is bar-none the true treasure of the rays.

[Derek]

Its a shame that he goes for the K on every batter. If learn to make hitters hit his pitch instead of trying to make them not hit it at all, he'd put alot less strain on the bullpen and go much deeper into games.

[kb]

Go Kaz!!

Memo to Stu: Keep Kaz, Shields, Pena, Crawford, Upton, Young, Harris, Aki, Gomes, Reyes....

Memo to Stu: Do Not trade them for prospects and/or "players to be named later" and/or cash.

[Bob R.]

kb, please name one instance that the Rays, past or present, have traded an under 30 solid player for prospects &/or ptnl &/or cash. I am not talking of Gathright or Cantu or McClung, but someone the caliber of Upton or Crawford or Young or Kazmir or Shields or even Iwamura. And of course, neither do I mean players such as Lugo or Huff who were no longer part of the Rays' future plans.

As for Gomes or Reyes or even Harris, I cannot imagine why a Rays' fan would object to a trade that brought back real value.

[wigmeister]

Spot on BobR. Problem is they are cheap about free agents and timid of trading. Time is not on the Rays side. The good core will opt for free agency when the time comes, even if the cheap management matches any offers because they are on a poor team. Crawford is a potential Hall of Famer. Kazmir, Young, Upton, and Shields could be perennial all stars. The fact they are playing for the worst team (and surely a noncontender next year too) is costing them all millions. I don't mention Pena because they won't offer him enough to resign him. They will probably trade him for "prospects."

[Bob R.]

Wigmeister, I repeat. Show me one instance where the Rays have traded a player of Pena's quality for prospects. I have no idea why anyone thinks that is likely.

Similarly, nobody can identify even one star player the Rays have ever let walk into free agency. On the contrary, the first thing the new owner did was extend both Crawford and Baldelli. Apparently they are also in the process of trying to tie Kazmir up as well.

As for being cheap on free agency, that is not true either. They outbid both the Indians and Padres for Iwamura and made legitimate offers to Dotel and Riske. They even bid $20-25 million to get the rights to Matsuzaka (I do not have the exact figure) which was a reasonable sum at the time given previous such biddings. Nobody came close to the Boston bid.

What they have not done is overpay for mediocrities who would not contribute to winning. There is not a shred of evidence that the Rays are cheap. Aside from the fact that salaries are only a part of the budget, so that there is quite a bit of spending on areas that are needed to build AND SUSTAIN a contender such as Latin American academies, coaching, scouting worldwide and the like, the only thing we can legitimately say is that the Rays have sought talent in many places rather than overpay for lesser talent just as a sop to public opinion.

Finally, time is very much on the Rays' side. In fact it is one of their most valuable assets, because their talent is young and tied to the team at least for two more years. That gives them time to evaluate, fill in gaps where needed and grow so that when some of those players are free to move TB should be much more appealing. It is exactly the reason they should not take extreme risks with signing high profile players; they have time to determine exactly what they need and to seek it out within their own system.

[Ryan Callahan]

hey kb: aki, gomes, and reyes are definately expendable. all gomes does anymore is make wind, aki could be traded for a couple of pen pitchers and we have longo coming up from the minors, and reyes has been horrific since the all star break.

[Mark Cianci]

Hey Ryan Callahan, I'd let Harris go way before Aki. Aki's a gold glove caliber third baseman, and I'd hate to see him go. He's a gamer, plays the games with ton of passion and heart. There is no way I include him in the expendable list before Harris.