July 9, 2012

BP Unfiltered

Scott Kazmir's Theoretically Possible Comeback Began Sunday

by Sam Miller

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Scott Kazmir pitched for the Sugar Land Skeeters on Sunday. It was his first outing with the independent league team, and the first time he has pitched since he retired one batter and allowed four runs in the Dominican Winter League. 

No box scores online, so far as I can tell, but there's a game story on the Skeeter's website. 

Former two-time MLB All-Star Scott Kazmir (0-1) made his long awaited first start of the season for the Skeeters Sunday evening. In the lefty’s first outing, Kazmir faced five batters allowing two hits and two earned runs with a strikeout from 21 pitches. Two runs came across on a two-run home run in the top of the first compliments of Brock Peterson’s long ball (16) into left to give the Bluefish the lead, 2-0.

[Update: Box score.]

Other names you'll recognize on the Skeeters' roster: Gary Majewski, Pedro Liriano, Jason Lane (continuing his outfield-to-pitcher conversion) and Bobby Livingston. There's also a guy named Will Startup who is, charmingly, inactive.

Some Kazmir quotes, via the Skeeters:

“No, physically I was healthy (on the Angels). It was just a matter of going back to the drawing board on pitching. I felt like I lost a little bit of my delivery. It wasn’t smooth and compact. The last four or five months I have been working on it. I have tried to get comfortable with my delivery again, feeling good about throwing strikes and getting the velocity back up there. It is still a work in progress, but I have made some big strides.”

“For being 13 months off and facing live hitters, I feel very confident to be able to throw strikes. I feel excited to be able to build off of that. Before when I was back in affiliated ball towards the end, it was tough to actually go out there and compete. You had no clue where it was going. I didn’t have anything behind it. Being able to go out there today, pitch the way I did and throw strikes it felt good. I had some velocity on them, a good slider and it was just one bad change-up that I left up. I’ll take that any day.”

 What the heck, I'll root for him. 

Sam Miller is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @SamMillerBB
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