A Quick Note on Scott Kazmir

879 pitches prior to heading to the disabled list, 6.2% swinging strikes.

1025 pitches after coming off the disabled list, 9.8% swinging strikes.

The improvements extend beyond velocity and swinging strikes. Kazmir is walking less and striking out more batters. 7.8% of Kazmir's batters faced have been unintentionally walked versus 12.9% pre-DL stint. Meanwhile 18% of Kazmir's batters faced are going down with a K which is an increase over the 15.6% through mid-May.

It's still odd to look at Kazmir's FanGraphs page and see such a low number under "K/9". If you would've told me Kazmir would only strike out ~7 per nine before the season I would've guessed he tore his UCL in the first start. I suppose such is the unpredictable nature of pitching. The change in Kazmir's contact rate is one of the highest gains - meaning more contact than last year - in all of baseball, which isn't encouraging, but obviously a bit understandable given his rough start.

Kazmir's FIP and tRA are declining on a consistent basis and he's looked better, even if his numbers for the entire season will fail to reflect such.

Stats courtesy of StatCorner and Fangraphs