By the time it was over, only a smoldering hole was left on the mound where Scott Kazmir had been. The (very) former Rays' ace allowed 8 runs in a third-inning detonation, along with 13 earned runs in a total of 5 innings pitched. He was not aided by a number of circus acts in the outfield and a bad call at the plate, but the Kazmir of old made defense and officiating irrelevant with his gaudy strikeout rates. Quoth the grand slam to Rajai Davis (you read that right, Rajai frickin' Davis): "Never more." Kazmir appears to be washed up at only 26 years old, and unless he goes on the DL with an "injury," both he and the $18 million remaining on his contract may soon be forfeit.
The Angels offense was nearly as inept as the defense, mustering only six base runners against the worst pitching Oakland has to offer. Brandon Wood scored the lone Angel run on a triple by Cory Aldrige--his first major-league hit. The event gave the 31 year-old replacement player a highlight before his inevitable minor-league re-assignment. The entire AAA wrecking crew made an appearance tonight--Aldridge, Paul McAnulty, Brandon Wood, Jeff Mathis, Reggie Willits, and even Bobby Wilson--giving hope that the 43-47 Salt Lake Bees may yet turn their season around once the big-league club tires of them.
Our Game Thread Roll Call is after the poll...
0 recs | 56 comments
Aldridge getting his first MLB hit and RBI was pretty cool.
Everything else, not so much
~MMP~ - July 10, 2010
8 years between major league appearances
happy for him
yeswecan - July 11, 2010
Well I'm glad I was at FanFest
instead of listening to the majority of the damage and meltdown by Angel pitching
blast21dave - July 10, 2010
DAMMMIT KAZ!
Angels_48 - July 10, 2010
poor cupie took his family to this one
…vacation buzzkill of the worst kind…
Rev Halofan - July 10, 2010
Payback for the HH event?
blast21dave - July 11, 2010
good one
like our karma for that Halo kick-butt game vs. A’s
But I DO feel badly for Cupie and Co
Dude was probably in the bar the whole time
I know I would be
Raaddad - July 11, 2010
Ah, give Kaz a break
Did you see him suffering in the dugout?
I don’t know. Does seem he is beyond repair, but who knows?
We ain’t got no money. We ain’t got no replacement. Go Kaz!
vladtheimpaler - July 10, 2010
replacement ?
Funke5ive - July 11, 2010
I'm convinced
ryanfea - July 11, 2010
But can she pitch
wait a minute, I guess that’s the point.
vladtheimpaler - July 11, 2010
Don't know if she can pitch
but I sure would like to see her box.
rmhalofan - July 11, 2010
I see what you did there.
Clutch - July 11, 2010
good form
works for me
Raaddad - July 11, 2010
That high leg kick
is a blessing and a curse. May as well not hold the runners with the mechanics she has and the catchers the Angels currently have!
blast21dave - July 11, 2010
Man he blows
I felt really bad for the guy today.
TheAntiSox - July 10, 2010
Reagins blew this one, massively
Seriously, when do the calls for his hide start? I haven’t done a significant analysis of the Angels transactions since he became GM, but Kazmir is rapidly looking like a catastrophe trade. And I haven’t been impressed with his utilization of player assets, either.
scareduck - July 11, 2010
It obviously wasn't a good trade...
but jury is still out on whether he actually gave anything up to get Kazmir. Sean Rodriguez isn’t exactly tearing it up over in TB right now.
If any of those guys we gave up do anything significant in the majors is becomes a bad trade, until then it’s getting nothing for nothing. The equivalent of grabbing a has been off waivers.
Nashdiesel - July 11, 2010
The fact that he gave up anything is pathetic.
You should be able to trade for a guy like this and his contract for practically nothing or an equal salary dump.
snowhor - July 11, 2010 via mobile
$25M in salary is not NOTHING.
C’mon, Nash. $25M is not a waiver wire claim. You’re brighter than that.
Turks Teeth - July 11, 2010 via mobile
I was referring to the players traded not the money...
Nashdiesel - July 11, 2010
Sean Rod
Is hitting 271 with a 435 slugging percentage. The 62-6 K-W ratio is really bad. He’s played good defense mostly at 2nd, also can cover short and all 3 outfield spots.
If we had him he would probably be the starting 3rd baseman right now. Not a star, but a useful player. And they get him for 5 more cheap years.
If we had not done the trade we couldn’t possibly be any worse off in the #5 starting spot. One candidate might be Alex Torres (8-3, 2.90 in AA).
Epic fail of a trade.
RallyMonkey5 - July 11, 2010
I doubt Torres would be a candidate for the 5th starter spot this year.
It would most likely be one of the Palmer/Bell/SOS trifecta, though I think they would still be better than Kazmir, or at least suck for league minimum.
~MMP~ - July 11, 2010
significant analysis
Ninja’d
Funke5ive - July 11, 2010
In 2009
Kazmir was effective. Given his age, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that he would at least be a mid-rotation guy for the next couple of seasons. You’re better than this, ‘duck. Reagins hasn’t been brilliant, but has made some good moves. It’s hard to find a GM who does everything right.
jjackflash - July 11, 2010
For a hitter that might be true.
But how many young, great pitchers who get arm injuries and struggle ever return to their former glory.
There’s. No sugar-coating this one for el ninja.
snowhor - July 11, 2010 via mobile
"Better than that?"
Many of us agree with Rob. I certainly do.
Reagins is an executive with no track record. He’s made a number of terrible bets, has overpaid on Kazmir, Fuentes and Rodney, and badly misjudged our depth.
Kazmir was NOT effective in 2009. He had a 7.11 ERA before the ASB, had lost his crisp slider, and lost 3-5. MPH on his slider. He effectively sunk us for good in the ALCS.
As long as folks keep rewriting history, these facts need to be restated.
Turks Teeth - July 11, 2010 via mobile
second mention of slider shd read "fastball"
Turks Teeth - July 11, 2010 via mobile
I put some blame on Butcher
as his former coach you know Reagins consulted Butch before doing the trade, and I’m sure Butcher said he could fix what was ailing Kaz. I beieive that butch told Reagins to go get Kaz if he could, and nobody can convince of me otherwise.
2pintsofbooz - July 11, 2010
Speaking of re-writing history
Remember that Kaz had a regular season ERA of less than 2.00 for the Angels. Maybe a fluke, maybe not—but it does/did give hope for this year. THis is reminding me more and more of SPeier—great in the first regular season for us, BLOWS it in the postseason, never good after that.
Clutch - July 11, 2010
^This^
A sub-2.00 ERA counts as “effective” where I come from.
jjackflash - July 11, 2010
track record
Rodney: bad signing
Abreu: good signing
Hunter: good signing
Teixeira trade: good deal
Fuentes: average signing. Fuentes was very good in 2009. Sure, the Save stat is deeply flawed, but the fact of the matter is that by and large he did the job he was paid to do. Who would have been last year’s closer, if not for Fuentes?
Kazmir: not looking good, but IMHO the jury is still out. If it turns out he’s injured, but comes back as an effective pitcher next year (sub-4.00 ERA), it’s not such a bad deal. S-Rod is the only guy involved in the deal who’s in the majors at this point. It remains to be seen what, if anything, Torres or Sweeney will do.
jjackflash - July 11, 2010
You guys are saying Scioscia has nothing whatsoever to do with these decisions?
I don’t concur.
Fred Fredrix - July 11, 2010
I never said that
or even intimated it in any way.
jjackflash - July 12, 2010
Seriously, what's wrong with Kazmir?
How can someone with this much talent be so awful?
Injured?
Or is it possible, maybe he was a product of steroids?
bc56274 - July 11, 2010
I'm been thinking that for a while but didn't want to say it
vladtheimpaler - July 11, 2010
Just sitting around waiting for me to be the bad guy?
bc56274 - July 11, 2010
Of course
old people are patient.
vladtheimpaler - July 11, 2010
Figured bc would eventually cave
vladtheimpaler - July 11, 2010
It doesn't seem like he's ever really bounced back from the arm injures he had in TB
Not sure how much of it is due to the injuries themselves or him being paranoid about re-injuring himself.
~MMP~ - July 11, 2010
You always think the best of people.
I admire that about you.
bc56274 - July 11, 2010
What talent?
He has a 90-92 MPH fastball. His slider has no bite whatsoever. And he struggles to throw anything in the strike zone. He had talent a few years ago when he could throw 95 on the FB and got a lot of break on the slider. He hurt his elbow in spring 2008, and the slider (a pitch that is tough on the elbow) has never been the same since.
RallyMonkey5 - July 11, 2010
Ive been trashed since noon
So, didn’t see the game, except for a brief 8-0 update on FSW.
I want to yell at things. People, things, need to be DFA’d. Immediately. I don’t give a fuggin if aldridge got his first RBI. Go make that milestone with the Orioles.
Was McAnunlty in the lineup today? It’d be cool if sosh would just stop giving WORTHLESS JOURNEYMEN MiLB players a crack at the starting lineup.
clover_black - July 11, 2010
Yes
Big Mac started at 1st
Gokyle45 - July 11, 2010
as an Angels fan I'm personally embarrassed every time I see Macanulty in the lineup
what the f happened to our team???
2pintsofbooz - July 11, 2010
I jus drunk myself into oblivion tonight
Chico style, and for those of us who know know and live the chico way of life, you get where I’m comin from.. Reidiculous, Fu Kaazmir, Trevor Bell is gonna take your spot so fast it;s not gonna be funny. Go haloa! haloheaven is the shit!!!!
Halowood - July 11, 2010
Win.
Clutch - July 11, 2010
I think this is the breaking point for whatever
they’re going to do next. Whether it is buy or sell. Losing 15-1 to the A’s is the low point of this seasons so far. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be like last season when they got embarassed and sosh ripped em and they turned it around!
angelskid2210 - July 11, 2010
We've had worse
“Losing 15-1 to the A’s is the low point of this seasons so far.”
Worse is being swept in 4 games by the Sux. Pick your color, white or red. As horrible as Kazmir was, Weaver can still get us 2 out of 3 in this series today.
Is there anyone out there, who if God came down and offered you a guarantee of 2 out of 3 from the A’s this weekend, would turn it down and gamble on getting a sweep?
RallyMonkey5 - July 11, 2010
Even better
We lost no ground to the only team that really counts right now. Thank you Orioles for taking care of Texas!
RallyMonkey5 - July 11, 2010
I'd just like to say.....
The headline and first several sentences of the OP are some very good writing. Seriously. Creative and witty without being too much of a smart aleck. Very nice work.
BeerCub - July 11, 2010
Whether Kaz's arm is healthy or not, I've never seen more timid body language and facial expression
Maybe the past couple of starts can be washed away with a solid outing next time out, but after having whatever was left of his confidence shattered in the 5th inning is the kind of stuff that ruins careers.
You could see he didn’t want to be run back out there after giving up 8 runs the inning before. After , I can’t believe Soth is even considering running him back out again after the break.
But maybe still Butcher “knows” something that we don’t. Uggh…
Big Easy Halofan - July 11, 2010
In the fanpost that had Scioscia's comments about Kazmir, someone suggested that Bell and SOS weren't stretched out yet, and that could be part of he reason Kazmir isn't being replaced yet.
~MMP~ - July 11, 2010
Whose fanpost?
Big Easy Halofan - July 11, 2010
Looks like I chose a good day to go to Fanfest…..
firebird81 - July 11, 2010
What happened to our depth?
It appears there is a gap between the Conger’s, Trumbo’s and the like and the bigs. What we have is McFatty, no names & triple A lifers. I guess we just wait it out until the kiks are ready. BTW, if the ump makes the right call on the play at the plate, maybe we stay in that game pull it out and end up 3.5 back
salmonforever - July 11, 2010
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