SaberMets.com

« Zambrano Done For The Year? | Main | Welcome To SaberSox! »

On Kazmir And Zambrano

I open the daily rags this morning to see the Mets bashed, as usual, this time for Scott Kazmir's performance against the Mariners on Monday night. Coupled with Victor Zambrano's stay on the disabled list, everyone is calling for heads to roll for whomever in the Mets organization green-lighted this move. I've already written at length about the moves here and you can read what other Mets bloggers thought of the deal here, so I'm not going to debate the merits of this deal again.

Whether or not you believe the Mets got fleeced by Tampa GM Chuck LaMar should not change based on the events of the past week. Zambrano is on the shelf, possibly for the rest of the season, but that doesn't necessarily make this deal a bust. Regardless of what the Mets thought process was in making this deal, they clearly didn't make it with the sole intention of completing in 2004. Zambrano is arbitration eligible for the next three seasons, and that was a big factor in this trade.

Scott Kazmir threw five nice innings on Monday. He hit 95 on his fastball, but struggled with erratic control. All said, it was about as much as you could expect from a 20-year-old making his big league debut. The success or failure of this trade did not hang in the balance of those five innings, regardless of what Bob Klapisch might have you believe. If Kazmir got lit up for seven runs in three innings, would that have proven the Mets geniuses? Surely not.

Nor can Kazmir's debut be considered a resounding success. He showed flashes, and was understandably jittery considering the magnitude of the situation. Kazmir allowed seven baserunners (four hits, three walks) and struck out four in his five innings. He also faced an awful Mariner team (in an extreme pitcher's park) that featured only a single hitter with an 800+ OPS (Ichiro's .869). By comparison, the Mets oft-maligned lineup, even accounting for players on the DL, could feature as many as seven players with an 800+ OPS, albeit some in a part-time role: Gerald Williams (1.004), Richard Hidalgo (.903), Cliff Floyd (.843), David Wright (.841), Eric Valent (.829), Mike Cameron (.827), and Vance Wilson (.810).

Had Kazmir pitched horribly, I wouldn't have felt an iota better about this deal. I still consider him one of our own, even though he's not pitching for us. It bothers me that no one has stepped forward in the Mets camp to say, "I decided to make this deal". In all likelihood, though, enough people simply didn't oppose the deal, which was apparently sufficient greasing to get this trade done. Based on interviews given, nobody thought this was a bad deal, which apparently translated to "it's a good deal" when all was said and done. Boss Wilpon put his stamp of approval on it, and it was out the door. Sigh.