Scott Kazmir 2009

I've seen a few people express the opinion that Scott Kazmir is overrated. I'm not sure what that's based on. In fact, I'd say that if anything he's underrated. Kazmir is consistently putting up K/9 rates of 10.0 or higher, while pitching in the tougher league. His control is bad (BB/9 of 4.2 in 2008), but he's also only 24 years old, despite the fact that it seems like he's been pitching forever. Another weakness in 2008 was an extreme tendency to allow flyballs (30.8% groundball rate), but that may have been a fluke, as his groundball rates in the past have generally been over 40%. I expect Kazmir to be one of the top pitchers in the American League in 2009. As a Mets fan, I'm still bitter about the one-for-one Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano trade. Since the day the trade happened I've considered it the stupidest trade in the history of major league baseball. Other trades may have worked out slightly worse, but none were as hard to justify.