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Bill James Calls Shields "Drysdale to Kazmir's Koufax,"

By BrentAbernathyFan

The Godfather of Sabermetrics in baseball's new handbook comes out November 1st, and here's an excerpt talking about Kazmir and Shields:

Scott Kazmir, age 23, is listed as the #5 best young player in baseball. "Sort of a shorter Steve Carlton, he battled the league's strictest pitch counts and missed by one of leading the major leagues in strikeouts," James says. "He now has three straight winning seasons, which isn't that easy to do starting about five times a year against Toronto, Boston and the Yankees with with Tampa Bay Rays behind you."

James Shields, who is #20 on the Young Talent Inventory, is among the older players on the list at 26 years old. "He plays Drysdale to Kazmir's Koufax, had an outstanding seasons despite allowing 28 home runs and working against hard pitch counts," James notes. "Never wastes a pitch, with a strikeout/walk ratio of 184-36."

Both make the list of top 30 young players in the MLB, somehow no other Ray makes that list, including Upton, Crawford, and Delmon Young.

In other Scott Kazmir semi-related but really just a self plug news: it's nearly Friday, that means new BtB column and this week I asked the question: do Texas pitchers get pissed off easier on the mound?

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