Baseball Thread Number 8: Cal Ripken says the playoff hunt is fun

Kazmir was not going to be the difference in them making the playoffs or not. they had an opportunity to dump his salary and get prospects back leaving them payroll flexibility to sign their own guys. Which may allow the to compete for a longer period of time. Not a move you make if you're a big market but a damn smart one if you're a team like the Rays.

They also may have felt that Kazmir had hit his ceiling and it was downhill from here on out.

 

I'm sure that is exactly how they felt about Kazmir and I really do understand the thinking behind the deal for them. Payroll flexibility always has to be a concern for the Rays in a way that it isn't for teams like the Red Sox and Yankees.

That said, Kazmir has been pitching better of late and could have helped them.

 

Sure, but he has what 5 or 6 starts left and how far back are the Rays? I doubt Kazmir goes 6 and 0 and I doubt his replacement goes 0 and6. Ballsy move by the Rays imo.

 

So the Mets were right about Kazmir 5 years ago, when they gave him away -- for the exact reason oop cited -- in exchange for a large pile of shit (Ok, they should have gotten a lot more for him) and everybody said they had given up on a great young prospect.

 

No the Rays got good years out of him and some of those years were cheap years.
So a player has to play 10 years after a trade to make it successful? He may still have it, who knows, but a team like the Rays don't have the luxury to take that chance.

 

Nope. The Rays got an absolute steal in the Kazmir trade. And now they did just fine trading away Kazmir, who's owed $25 million over the next two years, but has been injury-prone and inconsistent ever since he signed an extension before the 2007 season.

 

Bullshit. If you "don't have the luxury to take that chance" don't give him the contract to begin with.
I remember during the pennant run last year when the owner talking about doing whatever was necessary to keep the team contending. Now, he's giving away a 25 year old lefty in a salary dump move.

One more cheap bastard looser.

 

How do you know they did just fine, Oz?
Maybe these so-called prospect will all amount to nothing

 

That's like saying the Yankees should just deal away Joba Chamberlain if they can get a good enough package of prospects because he only has so many starts left.

 

No, they were wrong because his perceived value at the time was a lot higher than what they got for him. Sure, there was reason to believe that Kazmir carried with him too much of a risk of injury. The same was true of Johan Santana when he first came up. He got in a hell of a lot of greatness before breaking down this year and could still have more ahead of him.

 

Low-revenue franchises have to make decisions that large-revenue ones don't. And they have had a full year to watch Kazmir show signs of breaking down. The Rays were willing to change course rather than stick by a previous decision that was looking like a bad one, which is important to any team's success.

 

More small market bullshit.

What's next? Longoria goes into a prolonged slump next season and they dump his salary, too?