Recently, Scott Kazmir took his mechanics for a tune up. No, he did not visit the swing mechanic, but the biomecanics at Dr. James Andrews's American Sports Medicine Institute. For more on the evaluation process click here.
After getting the results of the test, Kazmir consulted with former big league pitching coach, Rick Peterson, whom Kazmir worked with back when they were members of the Mets organization. Peterson is currently an independent instructor and consultant. If you think this is going above the Rays or Jim Hickey's head, that is not true. Andrew Friedman as well as the Rays staff were on board with the whole process.
"Scott has a long-standing relationship with Rick and he wanted to reach out to him regarding the biomechanics study we conducted," executive VP Andrew Friedman said."Nothing negative at all," Kazmir said. "And it's not like I was going behind anybody's back; everyone was on the same page." --Tampabay.com
Before this turns into a Hickey bash-fest, lets look at the real issue; Scott Kazmir has not pitched like Scott Kazmir in a while. It makes all the sense in the world for him to go back and talk to Peterson to try and figure out what has changed in the years since he's been with the Rays. Afterall, the goal is to get Scott Kazmir back to where he was a few years ago. That should be everyone's goal and however he achieves it, it will only help the Rays.
Now that the quad injury is behind him and the evaluation is complete, it's time to put all the information gathered into motion, pun intended. All eyes will be on the Class A Charlotte Stone Crabs roster as they in host Lakeland, where Scott Kazmir will make his first rehab start at 7:05 tonight. It will be the first time Kaz has thrown in a real game since May 20th. He is expected to be on a pitch limit of around 65 pitches.