Kazmir Pitching a Gem; Callaspo HRs. sky is falling

[Guest]

[Mark68]

Someone in the Cards OF will go down with an injury, Randal Grichuk will get called up and will promptly win NL rookie of the year.

They'd have to have three OFers go down, as Tavares and Piscotty would be ahead of Grichuk on their depth chart.

[Homebrewer]

Nice work.

[Chuck]

Butcher couldn't fix Kazmir. Dude's fb velocity was topping out at 86 MPH here. No clue what happened after his year off from baseball, but he returned and his FB was 6 mph better....back to where it was during his years with the Rays

He pitched with Clemens during his year away from the bigs. Maybe the Rocket hooked him up with some good stuff

LOL at people ragging on Butcher when it comes to Kazmir.

Butcher was Kazmir's pitching coach in TB a year before he had his best season when he led the league in K's.

 

Kazmir attributed that season and his success to Mike Butcher. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Im all for replacing butcher, but he wasnt the problem with kazmir. Kazmir had some things going on 'outside of work'.

Im still for replacing butcher though.

[Homebrewer]

I don't see where anyone was blaming Kazmir on Butchy. The overall pitching decisions and pitching woes yes, and they are plenty, and have been.

I thought Butcher should have been gone years ago.

[AngelArcher]

LOL at people ragging on Butcher when it comes to Kazmir.

Butcher was Kazmir's pitching coach when he had his best years in TB, including when he led the league in K's.

Wrong, Butcher was the Rays pitching coach for one year and Kazmir did not lead the league in K's. Rays had a staff era near 5. Butcher was not retained by Maddon and company the following year.

[Stradling]

I could have sworn that we got Butcher while he was still with the Rays. I guess I was wrong.

[Homebrewer]

Another thing about watching Kazmir come back fro the abyss...is the possibility that Mulder might have done it too, if he didn't break his ankle due to the Angels bone-breaking curse (Vaugn Morales Mulder and Baylor)

[laagamer]

Okay guys, how about a bake sale?

 

To, you know, raise money...

[Homebrewer]

A bake sale for the Halo's orthopedic foundation?

[Chuck]

Wrong, Butcher was the Rays pitching coach for one year and Kazmir did not lead the league in K's. Rays had a staff era near 5. Butcher was not retained by Maddon and company the following year.

 

You are right, but Kazmir gave Butcher all the credit. I know because I interviewed him in the Safeco clubhouse after his Angels debut a few years back. 

 

http://angelswinblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/angelswincom-at-yard-kazmir-has-rhythm.html

 

 

Since the All-Star break (Including Wednesday's debut gem), Kazmir is 4-3 with a 4.07 ERA and six of his last seven starts have been quality starts. Kazmir's previous start, against Toronto, may have been his best of the season, going six innings while giving up just one run and striking out 10 Blue Jays. That makes 18 strikeouts in Kazmir's last 12.1 innings. The strikeouts are a good indication Kaz is back on track. In 2007, he led the American League in strikeouts with 239, a year after he worked with now Angels' pitching coach Mike Butcher.

"We had fun in 2006 working together," he said. "I learned a lot from Butch, did a lot of bullpen sessions and that carried over to 2007. I just think he and I, our personality type, worked well together. That just translated well into my routine and game."

[ukyah]

I still can't believe the Halos didn't try to keep Vargas.  

 

 

yep.

[Chuck]

I still can't believe the Halos didn't try to keep Vargas.  

 

That was the plan all along, but Vargas wanted 10 million a year and more years than the Angels wanted to give him. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

^yeah, I was scratching my head at the vargas decision too. Not to mention the no qual offer....

[Chuck]

He signed for 4 years at $8 mill/year.  

 

Angels with a bad decision for not wanting to give that to him, IMO.  

 

yeah they didn't want to commit to 4 years. They offered 2 with an option. 

[Guest]

He signed for 4 years at $8 mill/year.  

 

Angels with a bad decision for not wanting to give that to him, IMO.  

 

Angels should have first given Vargas a qualifying offer, thereby reducing his cash value to other teams, then attempted to negotiate a multi year deal.

 

Any of the three possible outcomes from that (getting a draft pick, getting Vargas for 1 year/ $14M, getting Vargas for a reasonable multiple year deal) would have been better than the Angels current sitaution. 

Edited April 2, 2014 by ScottLux

[AngelArcher]

After Vargas signed, I was thinking why the Angels didn't match the 32mil but for only 3 years or match the years as well and just release him if he becomes ineffective by year 4.

[Chuck]

Angels should have first given Vargas a qualifying offer, thereby reducing his cash value to other teams, then attempted to negotiate a multi year deal.

 

Any of the three possible outcomes from that (getting a draft pick, getting Vargas for 1 year/ $14M, getting Vargas for a reasonable multiple year deal) would have been better than the Angels current sitaution. 

 

This I agree with. 

[Homebrewer]

In other ex angel pitcher news..

Colon is pitching right now, and Chatwood just got put on the DL.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Homebrewer

[ELEVEN]

I still can't believe the Halos didn't try to keep Vargas.

Yep, considering the market for starting pitchers. That sure didn't make much sense.

[Jason]

I just read the thread title and didn't bother with rest of the posts. Why do I care what former Angels are doing?

[stormngt]

What's next?

 

Bourjos stays completely healthy and scores 120 runs leading off for the cardinals?

Trumbo hits 40 bombs?

 

When will something actually work out for the angels while screwing over another team.

 

Well in all honesty it is on you if your surprised PB stays healthy.  You are part of a group that believes one year of bad luck on injuries equates being injured every year.  PB only was sidelined for any real length of time last year. 

 

The year before he was beaten out by Trout.

 

[moccasin]

Callaspo is pretty average, but average is much better than Freese.

The one thing about Callaspo I liked is that he rarely killed rallies.

If they would at least play Green.

[AngelsLakersFan]

Angels should have first given Vargas a qualifying offer, thereby reducing his cash value to other teams, then attempted to negotiate a multi year deal.

 

Any of the three possible outcomes from that (getting a draft pick, getting Vargas for 1 year/ $14M, getting Vargas for a reasonable multiple year deal) would have been better than the Angels current sitaution. 

 

I'm not sure what the fear was of having to pay Vargas $14 mill for one year. Sure it's more than he is worth, but it's also less than half of the total value he ended up signing for. Of course as I said many times in the offseason this team has been seriously pinching pennies - of course DiPoto also said we were under budget.