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Scott Kazmir Makes Ground Meat of Royals; Leaves With Forearm Cramp

The Scott Kazmir rejuvenation tour made another stop tonight and we witnessed an entirely different pitcher. He wound up walking one more than he struck out, but 12 of his 17 balls in play were of the ground ball variety.  Kazmir's fastball apparently averaged 93 miles per hour and topped out at 95.2. That looked way too good to be true, so I ran tonight's average velocities against the data provided to FanGraphs by Baseball Info Solutions. Here's what I got:

 

Pitcher Tonight BIS Net
Kazmir 93.4 89.9 3.5
Choate 89.7 87 2.7
Chen 88.6 86.1 2.5
Bradford 80.3 77.9 2.4
Cruz 96.4 94.1 2.3
Wheeler 90.2 88 2.2
Colon 95.5 93.7 1.8
Balfour 94.7 93 1.7
Greinke  94.9 93.7 1.2
Bale 89.6 88.6 1
Howell 86.6 85.8 0.8

An average of 2 MPH gained and not a single pitcher had down velocity. That means Kazmir was probably closer to 91 and topped out at 93. That or the rest did everyone really, really well.

Star-divide

The strikeout and velocity figures don't reflect how hack-inducing Kazmir's stuff was though. 11/101 pitches ended with swings and misses. Despite swinging out of the zone a lot, the Royals do make a fair amount of contact when they swing. So it's probably fair to say Kazmir should get the share of credit for the whiff rate. Let's look at Kazmir's stuff.

Kaz1_medium

(Yes, that ‘slider' is most likely a fastball)

Everything looks just about right. Kazmir's fastballs have a clear two-seam/four-seam cluster effect working. They were getting very good rise and run towards lefties. His slider had some nice break towards righties. Kazmir's velocity remained constant throughout the game, 94 (unadjusted) on his final fastball of the night.

He left the game with "cramps in his lower left forearm". It's reportedly minor. His performance certainly didn't show many signs of serious injury.

Other thoughts:

The Royals defense is really, really poor.

Willy Aybar took advantage with four hits, three singles. Pat Burrell added a double, Ben Zobrist had two singles, and B.J Upton rounded out the multiple hit brigade with three singles.

Chad Bradford's BABIP entering tonight was .571. It only went up. It'll only go down.

Oh and watching Greinke: wow, just wow. Just give him the AL Cy Young.

0 recs  |  Comment 13 comments |

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Foul balls are what I took away from his performance.

I can't help that I make some things look easier than they really are.

by Sandy Kazmir on Jul 19, 2009 12:18 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Is there any possible way

You could say there is a better bench player than boots at this point

by BJ the Bossman on Jul 19, 2009 12:56 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

OT: Jason Hammel is a Gonzalez killer

He beaned Edgar in the head during the Rox/Pads game tonight. Edgar needed to be taken off in a stretcher

"Doesn't Manny Ramirez look like the monster from Predator??" - Will Farrell as Harry Carey

by Gone Phishing on Jul 19, 2009 1:11 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

DJ Kazzy Kaz seemed to be missing down, if at all, which was great to see

Him pitching to contact instead of striking everyone out = mega win. Hopefully he builds on this and continues to improve.

Was it me, or did Greinke really seem to ramp up the mph against Longo and Burrell? They seemed to be the only ones getting consistent 96+ heat. He kind of hovered between 90-94 with everyone else. That’s called respak.

So long, Sweet Lime!

by PlayOnWords on Jul 19, 2009 8:22 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Best part of the night for me was Kaz killing righties inside

11 ground balls and all three K’s against RHB.

www.draysbay.com

by Tommy Rancel on Jul 19, 2009 9:02 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Was it just me or did it sound as if Staats was having

multiples in the booth?

I was very encouraged by Kaz, but point to a couple red flags 4 BB (including Olivo) and the help of two DP’s

And let’s not forget these are the Royals we’re talking about

Go Rays

by Raymondo on Jul 19, 2009 9:53 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Not quite the destruction I predicted, but still damn fine nonetheless.

Watch out, we may see hints of 2007 Kaz yet.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 19, 2009 10:41 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

The slider to the back foot gives me a ton of hope

I can't help that I make some things look easier than they really are.

by Sandy Kazmir on Jul 19, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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