But over the last few years, Kazmir’s fall has been inexplicable.

No, his arm fell off. Steve Blass or Rick Ankiel might have been inexplicable but Kazmir fell apart for the same reason most pitchers do.

The flamethrowing lefty emerged into not just a Rays All-Star, but a pitcher who was historically good.

??? that's a tiny bit of a nexaggeration, innit?

that's a tiny bit of a nexaggeration, innit?

Yes but it might depend on what stats you look at and where you draw your "historically good" line. For ages 22-24 (min 350 IP), Kazmir has the 2nd highest K/9 ever -- Prior being #1. His K/BB was solid (2.7, same as Gooden's) and his ERA+ was 132. That ERA+ was well behind the age 22-24 leaders (he was 35th and there are 12 guys over 150) but he was on an "HoF track" ... if he could just keep it up for another 2500 innings or so. :-)

But, agreed, when you add it all up, he was probably no better at those ages than Hamels, Zambrano or Zito, probably worse than Kershaw and a lot worse than Oswalt, so really not that special for his era. Even in 2007 he didn't receive a CY vote. He was also already fragile.

But he caused tremendous misery to Mets fans and for that he will always be appreciated!

Scott Kazmir is younger than a lot of players who are barely past being viewed as prospects. Including Drew Butera, Mike Nickeas, Daniel Nava, Will Rhymes, Sergio Santos, Cristhian Martinez...

Good luck, Scott!

Toward the end of his 3 or 4 year stretch of great pitching, Red Sox radio announcers noted during broadcasts they they could see Kazmir shaking his pitching hand oddly. They thought it meant that he was somehow feeling numbness. That's just a couple guys in the radio booth playing doctor but by 2007, there were cracks in the facade. I don't know what the hell the Angels thought they were doing trading for him.